The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Use of Digital Technologies in Ensuring the Efficient e-Learning Process at the Technical University of Moldova

The Technical University of Moldova (TUM) is the only state-accredited technical higher education institution in the Republic of Moldova. In the face of the magnitude of the health crisis, TUM had to quickly adapt its mode of operation to ensure the continuity of its activities and to accompany its students in the study process in an efficient way. In this paper, we analyzed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on eLearning and on the use of Moodle and Microsoft 365 educational platforms, implemented at the Technical University of Moldova. The data were exported from M365 Usage Report in excel format for a period of 180 days (from 15.02.2020 to 15.08.2020) and from the Moodle database for a period of about 210 days (period 31.12.2019 - 31.07.2020). Those intervals include the pre-pandemic period, the lockdown period and the student holiday period. The aim of the research was to analyze the potential of the university to continue and ensure the online education process internally, to share the lived experience, the measures taken to anticipate the widening of the digital divide, but also for the identification of vulnerabilities and reasoned planning of exit strategies, in an appropriate frame of reference, depending on subsequent developments related to the COVID- 19 pandemic. The Technical University of Moldova anticipated and undertook multiple measures that demonstrated the potential to ensure the continuity and good development of the teaching process during the pandemic by: reducing the digital divide; reducing the risks of inequalities in education for students from disadvantaged backgrounds; ensuring the social binder (imperative during this period). At the same time, it would be incorrect not to mention that eLearning, although it is an indisputable support in the teaching process, requires additional investments (financial, time etc.) from the university and from the teachers, but also from the students!