The COVID crisis impact on open education in the field of healthcare management.

ABSTRACT

This paper aims to explore how the Hellenic Open University managed to adapt to the new normal of the pandemic and particularly what methods it deployed in its postgraduate Healthcare Management program. The first part introduces the key features of the Hellenic Open University and analyzes the strategic policy deployed by the University during the pandemic through the pillars of academic integrity, openness and excellence. The second part presents the research method and findings regarding both instructors and students of the Healthcare Management postgraduate program. The third part concludes that the policy introduced by University had a positive effect overall both to academic staff and healthcare practitioners. The importance and innovation of this study lies in the fact that it emphasizes on adult students who are in their crashing majority healthcare practitioners and thus have already a saying regarding the pandemic's management. The scope of the research was to demonstrate that this student audience had a significant input in the teaching procedure, since they were at the forefront of the pandemic crisis. In this regard, the instructor-student relationship was more than ever reciprocal based on the knowledge of the first and the experience of the latter.