The Coronavirus Disease 2019 [COVID-19] emergency as a cause for a preventive measure against contagion, evolved into a situation that makes necessary implementation of proposals and strategies focused on minimizing their negative impacts, both of risk of contagion and of compliance with school calendar. Through implementation of emerging actions for activation of virtual teaching -learning methods, an academic contingency plan focused on ensuring a timely, efficient and coordinated response to an emergency situation due to closing University facilities, could help to ameliorate this unusual situation where people cannot meet in person to carry out their academic activities within the institution in a normal way.

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The Academic Contingency Plan addresses the following phases:

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Phase 0. Determination of context

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This is the phase that determines which assets, systems or processes are critical to our actions, that is, those whose unavailability would directly impact the institution, causing an unexpected cessation of activity. That is why the General Coordination of Virtual Education, through the Virtual University System of the Autonomous University of Guerrero is focused on serving all the Academic and Administrative Units, as well as all the people who comprise them, so we has a full scope of services within the Autonomous University of Guerrero.

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Phase 1. Analysis of the institution

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This phase bases its activity on obtaining, elaborating and understanding the circumstances that surround our institution, analyzing technologies and resources. To achieve this overview, it has been found that even when severity of COVID-19 contingency cannot be fully quantified to this date, it is necessary to provide elements and strategies to teachers and students and administrators. Through Autonomous University of Guerrero´s Institutional Platform, it will operate depending on two important conditions: maintenance of the network system, and a possibility of accessing alternative spaces. These alternative spaces need to have enough and adequate technological infrastructure, in order to continue with usual activities, whether at home, job or administrative areas.

It is worth noting that  Academic and Administrative Staff, as well as technological infrastructure within  the Autonomous University of Guerrero are prepared with their processes and strategies, in order to face a contingency situation with a Maximum Tolerable Downtime [MTD], calculated to avoid disastrous consequences for the institution and at the same time, exceeding the Revised Operating Level [ROL], so that in the event of any contingency, a minimum level of recovery could be reached on time.

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In the same way, Recovery Point Objective [RPO] is minimal, and its impact on any loss of data would be almost inexistent, since we can determine which processes and applications are priorities when it comes to be recovered.

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These processes are focused on minimizing and determining possible threats to which the institution is exposed, as well as possibilities of materializing in each case we face and thus, carry out a risk treatment plan responsible for implementation and application of  necessary resources for ameliorate problems found in this contingency.

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Phase 2. Determination of the Continuity Strategy

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An important part of this Plan is to provide alternative and emerging elements for both students and teachers, regardless of their level of ICT management, so they can use the tools that General Coordination of Virtual Education can provide to ease transition from a traditional context to a virtual user of ICT´s. 

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That is why, this phase is focused on determining what contingency solutions, and strategies should be implemented for each of the elements identified as critical or that could be affected in a contingency. Keep in mind that some processes may require various recovery strategies.

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Phase 3. Response to Contingency

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This phase begins with implementation of initiatives that have been divulged in previous phases. In addition, all documentation related to contingency response should be addressed through the following documents:

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- Crisis plan whose objective is to avoid improvised decision making that could worsen the situation.

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- Academic content repository for students and other members of academic staff to share activities, documents and academic content in an easily manageable cloud-based system. This allows the content to be available to people who wish to read it inside and outside of the university.

 

- An early proposal can be found on http://virtual.uagro.mx/recursos-educativos-en-linea.php

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- Operational recovery plans for virtual environments, which specify use of Institutional Virtual Platform and each of the emerging proposals.

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Technical work and training procedures describe actions to be carried out for management and recovery of a system, infrastructure or environment.

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Phase 4. Testing, maintenance and review

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Academic Contingency Plan using ICTs needs to be efficient and effective, verifying that it really works and keep it updated. For this, it will be necessary to execute a series of tests on application development of the plan, after which reports will be prepared in order to collect results obtained. In addition, all incidents arising in this process must be analyzed in order to establish corrective measures.

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Phase 5. Awareness

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Awareness is the last phase and it does not imply a less important phase than early phases, due to promoting awareness of students and academic and administrative staff, in terms of continuity and knowledge of the plans drawn up.

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This phase has made it possible to visualize a need to implement this plan to ensure continuity of academic activities.

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Conclusions

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This type of contingencies makes it necessary to maintain permanent training policies and programs focused on people who have not yet integrated ICT into their academic and administrative work, which will allow them to evolve into skilled teachers and administrative persons and students with a regular practice for using the institutional virtual platform, and some basic tools for transition from a traditional environment into a virtual process of teaching-learning-administration.