How do you transition a traditional educational legacy into an online environment without losing an ounce of its prestige?
This is the major challenge facing the vast majority of educational institutions today. It is not simply a matter of uploading documents to a platform or streaming live classes; it is about digitalizing processes while maintaining the exact same rigor as the physical classroom.
To analyze this scenario from a practical standpoint, we took advantage of E-Learning Experience Valencia, a premier event organized by Samoo by Pentec and sponsored by Smowltech. In our podcast studio, Big SMOWL Talks, we had the pleasure of speaking with María Dolores Jové, administrator and professor at CRETA (Regional Center for Theological Studies of Aragón).
Driven by high demand for their DECA programs (the ecclesiastical certification required to teach religion in schools), CRETA took a step forward by committing to a virtual learning model.
In this interview, María Dolores reveals the keys to their strategy: from managing change among the faculty to why SMOWL’s proctoring technology has become their greatest ally in safeguarding exam integrity.
The three pillars of academic reputation in the virtual era
Making the leap to online learning cannot mean uncontrolled mass enrollment or a lowering of quality standards. For CRETA, prestige in the virtual environment is non-negotiable. It stands firmly on three interconnected pillars that María Dolores breaks down clearly:
- Faculty Excellence and Adaptation: The starting point is having a faculty that not only possesses absolute mastery of their subject matter but also demonstrates the agility needed to navigate new technologies with ease.
- Maintaining High Rigor: There is a common myth that virtual education is more lax or easier. CRETA firmly debunks this bias: digital tools should facilitate learning, but they must never compromise the level of demand placed on students.
- Closeness, Ethics, and Humanism: One of the greatest risks of virtual environments is depersonalization. In the field of religious and theological studies, this aspect is even more critical. It is crucial that the screen does not translate into distance; the relationship between professors and students must always retain a deep ethical and humanistic component.
“New technologies cannot mean a drop in rigor. The ecosystem of digital tools must guarantee that high standard, which will ultimately result in solid social recognition.”
Protecting the value of the degree: an ethical commitment to the student
When the EdTech sector talks about “ensuring fair evaluations,” the focus is often solely on the institution’s reputational benefits. However, María Dolores shines a light on the true protagonist of the process: the student.
Students who invest their time, money, and effort into their education deserve a degree that carries real, indisputable value respected by society. Allowing integrity gaps in exams or turning a blind eye to academic fraud directly devalues the hard work of honest students.
Therefore, providing a secure environment is an ethical imperative. Nevertheless, digitalizing critical processes like testing naturally raises doubts and uncertainty. In launching this new phase at CRETA, the main challenge they had to navigate was not technical, but human: getting the faculty on board.
For technology to be a genuine help rather than a daily obstacle for professors, the institution understood that the absolute key is providing proper training. This is the only way to ensure they feel comfortable, secure, and supported in this new digital landscape, dispelling any fear of methodological change.
Tech partnership: efficiency and specialization with SMOWL
When the time comes to address exam integrity in online testing, academic institutions find themselves at a crossroads: build an in-house solution or outsource?
For CRETA, the answer came down to cost-efficiency. Developing, maintaining, and updating custom, proprietary proctoring software for a single institution involves development and cybersecurity costs that are completely unsustainable given the scale of their organization.
The smartest strategic alternative was to look at the market for expert, fully developed, and established solutions. Seeking a robust tool that fit their needs and budget, CRETA chose SMOWL’s proctoring technology. This partnership allows them to delegate the technical complexities of identity verification and exam monitoring, ensuring fairness at a sustainable cost.
Looking to the future: flexibility in the face of the AI revolution
Where is the evaluation model heading in the coming years? María Dolores anticipates that the next two years will be a phase of consolidation—a natural period of technical and methodological adjustment for both the institution and the faculty.
However, looking further ahead to a three-, four-, or five-year horizon, the landscape becomes much more challenging. In a context where Artificial Intelligence is driving exponential changes, predicting exactly which methodologies or tools we will use in the future is nearly impossible.
For CRETA, the winning strategy does not lie in trying to guess the future, but in cultivating an open and flexible institutional mindset. Technology and AI will continue to change the rules of the game, but as long as the institution maintains a proactive attitude to make the right decisions at every turn, it will be ready to embrace any innovation that guarantees a fair, human, and top-quality education.
