Early childhood online education in the COVID-19 context. Behavioral Patterns for User Interface Design Cristina Dreifuss-Serrano Facultad de Ingeniería y Arquitectura Universidad de Lima Lima, Perú cdreifuss@ulima.edu.pe Pablo C. Herrera Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas Lima, Perú pablo.herrera@upc.edu.pe Abstract—The outcomes from the lived experience descriptions show that tested indicators for the evaluation of both MOOCs and preschool education are insufficient or inexact for the assessment of our current condition. Most of the main online platforms, based on universities or as products of local entrepreneurships have ignored the preschool group. The already proposed generic solutions do not meet preschool education’s needs. Considering Behavioral Patterns we propose a model useful for both the evaluation of ongoing experiences and the organization of new content. Keywords—preschool, behavioral patterns, online education, distance education, assessment. I. INTRODUCTION Ten years ago, 2009-H1N1 reached 212 countries, with 18,449 deaths [1]. Between December 2019 and April 2020, COVID-19 has reached 213 countries, 5´308,190 total cases, and 340,075 deaths [2]. IHME [3] projected, by August 2020, 143,357 deaths in USA. Without a vaccine, the only way of minimizing transmission and propagation is the non- pharmaceutical intervention (NPI): social distancing, hand washing, isolation of the infected individuals, use of masks, etc. [4, 5]. First, these measures affected the schools, which were forced to migrate from face to face to remote teaching in just a few weeks. By May 2020, 69% of the world’s student’s population has been affected by the closing of schools [6]. TABLE I. PRESCHOOL STUDENTS IN LOCKDOWN In 18 countries from Latin America and the Caribbean that have closed schools due to the emergency, there are currently 162’904,195 affected students. The percentage of preschoolers in each country vary between 17% and 8% (Table 1) [7]. The survey on National Education Responses to COVID- 19 School Closures [8] by UNICEF defined four contexts for distance education: radio, television, online learning platforms and printed activities to take home. The survey COVID-19 and Early Childhood Education Workforce, by UNESCO New Delhi Office [9] added Mobile text (SMS), Mobile Messenger (WhatsApp, Messenger) and Social Media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter). At the beginning of the lockdown, online learning used the existing platforms (Google Classroom, Moodle, etc.), with quick solutions and haste training programmes for teachers and staff [10]. Few weeks later adjustments were made. Some schools could afford more private spaces, with smaller groups, aiming to attend students’ needs almost individually. Government programmes and strategies were developed, directed to a broader population. Preschool education has been affected the most, with parents withdrawing their children from nurseries and kindergartens, because of both economic and pedagogic reasons. Fig. 1. Papers published in IEEExplore using keywords related to online preschool education (early childhood, kindergarten, preschool), considering year of publication and country. 30 September – 02 October, 2020, Antigua Guatemala, Guatemala LWMOOCS VII – Learning With MOOCs 2020 Page 90 © IEEE 2020. This article is free to access and download, along with rights for full text and data mining, re-use and analysis