Returning to work after the winter break at the beginning of March 2020, JAMK staff were told that in response to the emerging threat from the coronavirus outbreak, all but the most essential foreign travel had been forbidden by university’s management board. Immediately thoughts turned to cancelling flights and accommodation for those transnational meetings that had been so diligently planned for the spring. At that point in time the full consequences of the rapidly evolving situation did not occur to me immediately.
It was only after a week or so when I thought about how the Pro-VET work schedule might be affected did it dawn on me that I needed to act and act fast to make sure that planned work continued. As more and more national governments closed down their education establishments, sending staff to work remotely, in a concerted attempt to contain the spread of the potentially deadly threat, teachers in many countries began to turn to online platforms to ensure their students’ learning continued with as minimal disruption as was possible.