A snapshot sample on how COVID-19 impacted and holds up a mirror to European water education

Abstract

Abstract. COVID-19 caused in many ways a disruption, not only in society but also in education/ teaching hydrology and water related sciences. Taking part in an academic teaching training course at Uppsala University during COVID-19 we got curious about how COVID-19 might impact European water education. The aim of this paper is to communicate the results and reflect on how teaching of hydrology and water related sciences changed due to COVID-19. We observed that overall water education changed throughout Europe due to COVID-19. A literature review of the common teaching techniques in the field and our survey indicate that hydrology educators use preponderantly conservative teaching styles, i.e., classical lectures and therefore these were rather easily moved online during the pandemic. Overall, the COVID-19 crisis impacted student learning negatively (reported by 67 % of the respondents) while only 16.7 % responded that the impact was positive. The online interaction made it more difficult for the teachers to assess the achievement of the learning outcomes. As most of the respondents (i.e., > 40 %) reported that they do not use classroom assessment techniques, the students’ performances and whether students reached their learning outcomes during distance teaching was largely unknown. Most affected learning activities were the ones that could not be moved to online teaching, such as laboratory and field work. Hence, the important knowledge of process understanding in hydrology will be missing for generations of hydrologists. In this way COVID-19 caused a secondary effect on society which needs skills to solve the future challenges e.g., water management in a changing climate. Next to all negative aspects, also a spirit of optimism, time of change and community initiatives could be noticed. COVID-19 made it possible to explore, improvise and using novel teaching methods which could be used to modernize education and make practical and “exotic” teaching formats accessible for all hydrology and water students.