Remote teaching in times of the COVID-19 pandemic: new experiences and challenges

Alessandra Conceição Leite Funchal Camacho1

1 Fluminense Federal University

ABSTRACT

Objective: To reflect on remote teaching as a possibility for new experiences and challenges in times of the COVID-19 pandemic. Method: A reflective analysis on the new experiences and challenges in remote teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results: Remote teaching brings the opportunity of integrating classes in a synchronous manner (in real-time) through web conferences and asynchronous activities (not in real-time) which allows for the use of interactive learning tools stimulated by the professor, knowledge mediator, especially in Nursing. Conclusion: It is recommended that the professor promotes interactivity allowing the student, while enjoying the available resource in the virtual learning environment, to compose elements of the contents that are discussed with positive learning experiences.

Descriptors: Online Education; Educational Technology; Coronavirus; Nursing.

In the world scene, even in Brazil, social isolation measures were taken as a means to prevent and mitigate the spread of COVID-19, when the World Health Organization declared it a pandemic in March 2020(1). Given that, many educational institutions had to suspend their face-to-face classes and activities, whether administrative or educational.

Faced with this situation, the Ministry of Education, published Ordinance No. 343, of March 17th, 2020, which provides for the replacement of face-to-face classes by online media while the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic situatioņ lasts. This same Ordinance highlights that it is up to the teaching institutions to define the subjects which can be replaced, the provision of tools to the students that allow for the follow-up of the contents offered, as well as conducting assessments during the period authorized(2).

Many higher education institutions planned the return of the academic and administrative activities remotely, availing the opportunity for discussions about this teaching modality and for new experiences aimed at the training of the professor.

In this new reality, the virtual learning environment, offered as a means, allowed the teachers to elaborate the remote plan of their classes, mediated by various technological devices. In the case of the Fluminense Federal University, we were provided with the Gsuite pack containing several applications for the development of remote teaching using Google tools, such as: Meet, Classroom, Docs, Spreadsheets, Presentations, Agenda, and Jamboard, among others, aiming at interactivity and creativity.

It is noted that the training process of teachers and students became necessary, which also glimpsed, in the university view, at the availability of resources for this reality to become possible for both parties. This new way of teaching with digital didactic resources required preparation and planning of the activities that could provide meaningful active learning moments and possibilities of learning both for the student and for the professor(3).

Thus, face-to-face teaching needed to be carried through digital means. The classes started to take place synchronously (following the face-to-face teaching principles), with video lessons, lectures by web conference on Meet, and the activities followed other time schedules during the week in the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), asynchronously. This is how presence is projected by means of the technology at the moment in remote teaching.

In the phase of opportunities for new experiences, the professors must seek to reflect on remote teaching from the teacher's perspective and also in the student's view (putting themselves in the other's place). To such an end, the initial search must aim at a plan that seeks to mitigate anguishes, such as: availability of videos explaining the students about the Gsuite pack, about Google Classroom and the presentation of the subject (from the programmatic content, learning objectives, and activities with their respective scores). This topic is called “Introduction and Presentation of the Subject” as a highlight to the Instructional Design for a better understanding of the Virtual Learning Environment.

In some opportunities, it is important to prepare tutorials on the access to the activities that also help in the conduction of classes, solving doubts in remote teaching.

In the initiation of these new experiences, the planning and development of the subject programmatic content stand out. According to the profile of the subject (graduate or undergraduate), the teacher can choose for the organization by dates so as to indicate to the student the content taught through the topic, with indication of the contents of the specified class and asynchronous activities.

In the opportunity to investigate the teaching and learning process continuously, it is possible to ask: How to guarantee it?

Identifying ways of effective contact by the registration of the VLE functionalities, such as participation in discussions in synchronous online classes and in the asynchronous activities, feedbacks, and contributions within the environment (in the feed, in the debate forums).

Through the tools, interactivity between professors and students can build rich relationships of knowledge exchange. In this perspective, the multimedia contents developed by the professors/content creators and posted by means of texts, videos and insertion of annexes allows for the tasks to be created in real time or scheduled, making them perfect both for the short or long duration subjects. The students are invited to respond to the tasks and are evaluated by the professor in the virtual learning environment itself.

With this reality, the need emerged to make schedules more flexible, recording online classes so that the students could have access to the contents at other times. There was also flexibility in controlling student attendance through access to the VLE.

However, there are some considerations to me made about the challenges in remote teaching, namely: effective availability of the Internet and of other technological resources that enable the occurrence of remote teaching; constant training (of teachers and students) in view of the speed at which the technological resources are modified and made available; importance of the interaction among the professors in the course of the subject so that it can occur in a visible way for the student according to the remote teaching planning arranged at the beginning; availability of teachers for constant feedback to the student that is in line with the proposal of the class taught aiming at collaborative learning; and visibility of care for the other through integrated and cooperative learning in the field of remote teaching.

As a recommendation, it is pertinent to conduct a final assessment of the subject by the student about the remote teaching developed, aiming at the educational rationality that is in line with the political-pedagogical project of the course.

Given this reality of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is recommended that the professor brings meaningful interventions, so that each individual, enjoying the available resources, may compose scenes synced with the very elements of their context and manages to transform their intellectual universe with positive learning experiences.

There are no answers or immediate exits at this moment to solve the pandemic problem but, together, we can take advantage of this moment to create a large debate forum and discuss the paths that can be built thinking of a quality educational process. This directive is in the outline of an educational perspective of Nursing education that allows for the planning of strategies that enable a critical discussion of the moment we are living.

In addition to that, remote teaching must be inclusive, proposing actions and measures that seek to ensure an improvement in the quality of teaching, with investment in broad training of the teachers and the break with attitudinal barriers.

The timing is for new experiences and for advancing knowing the challenges of the present with full understanding that remote teaching brings us reflections on the future complexity in face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

REFERENCES

1. World Helath Organization. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): situation Report–51. WHO [Internet]. 2020 [cited 2020 Nov 13]. Available from: https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200311-sitrep-51-covid-19.pdf?sfvrsn=1ba62e57_10

2. Brasil. Ministério da Educação. Portaria nº 343, de 17 de Março de 2020. Dispõe sobre a substituição das aulas presenciais por aulas em meios digitais enquanto durar a situação de pandemia do Novo Coronavírus-COVID-19. Brasília [Internet]. 2020  [cited 2020 Nov 13]. Available from: https://www.mec.gov.br/

3. Camacho ACLF; Joaquim FL; Menezes HF. Possibilidades para o design didático em disciplinas online na saúde. Research, Society Development [Internet]. 2020 [cited 2020 Nov 13]; 9(4):1-10. Available from: https://rsdjournal.org/index.php/rsd/article/view/2907/2169