Sharing experiences gained from virtual education at the universities during coronavirus disease pandemic (COVID-19)

Since the very beginning of the outbreak of the Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) and the resulting disease (COVID-19) in the country, the Army of the Islamic Republic of Iran including the Navy, in accordance with the Supreme Leader's decree to respond to the spread of the highly contagious virus initiated fast and outstanding measures. One of the measures, according to health guidelines, was to suspend educational programs in universities in line with the country. In order to prevent disruption in the educational programs of universities, all faculty members and teaching staff of the university were notified to change their teaching methods from face-to-face training to virtual and online environment. In this article, the measures which were taken by university faculty members in a relatively short period of time (i.e. two weeks) and using the available software and the university Internet portal are described. Two types of courses (theoretical and laboratory) were considered and the experiences gained during the virtual education of the selected courses were also explained. In this study, some of the strengths and weaknesses within the process of transforming face- to- face and normal education to remote and virtual environment over two academic chemistry courses (theory and laboratory) are presented.