The Secretary of Distance Education of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Carmem Rêgo, gave, this Thursday (17), the closing lecture of the seminar “Syphilis and other STIs in the context of covid-19: technological mediation as an instrument of resilience”. The event, in a hybrid format, was hosted at the Open University of Portugal (UAb/PT) and brought together researchers from the Laboratory of Technological Innovation in Health (LAIS/UFRN) and master’s and doctoral students from the Portuguese university.

Researchers and students develop scientific studies under the Project on Rapid Response to Syphilis in Care Networks, better known as “No Syphilis”. Through a web conference, Carmem Rêgo, who was in Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, was able to communicate synchronously with researchers from several states in Brazil and with those who participated, in person, at the seminar, in Lisbon, capital of Portugal , and other regions of the European country.

The UFRN EaD Secretary is Vice-coordinator of “Sífilis Não” and for 15 minutes she presented the various actions developed by the Brazilian university in the context of the covid-19 pandemic. When addressing the “Resilience of the public university during the pandemic”, Professor Carmem Rêgo highlighted initiatives developed by SEDIS and partners in facing the difficulties imposed by social distancing, such as the production of a series of pedagogical support notebooks for educators to work with the Emergency Remote Learning.

“At the beginning of the pandemic, we faced many challenges, but it was through technology-mediated education that we were able to show the academic community at UFRN that it was necessary to find urgent alternatives to deal with the scenario that presented itself”, said Carmem Rêgo, citing the various online courses produced with the support of the SEDIS/UFRN team for virtual learning environments such as AVASUS, AVAProgesp and AVAProex. The seminar lasted two days and also included the presentation of works by masters and doctoral students at UAb/PT.

Bruno Cássio – Media Sector at SEDIS/UFRN.