Living in Natal and taking a distance-learning course in Public Administration at the São Gonçalo do Amarante branch, without having to commute, this was the reality for Rebbeca Maia Balduino Santos, 37. But those who think that taking an EaD course is easier than graduating in person are mistaken. “In the beginning it was quite challenging, until I could understand the best time to manage my daily routine for the studies and understand my responsibilities as a student,” she comments as she recalls her academic path.
Distance Education at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN) brings people closer to Higher Education. For Rebbeca Maia, EaD represented the opportunity to improve herself, and for professional and personal enrichment. In April 2022, she received the announcement of the academic laurel during her graduation ceremony: “I was surprised and very happy. It is the recognition of your effort, dedication, and your choices. When I started the course, I had been out of the academic world for about 6 years.
After concluding this important stage in her life, the bachelor in Public Administration projects her next challenges: “this year I intend to start a specialization in process, people, or business management”.
Opportunity in Costa Branca
In Costa Branca Potiguar, there is a center in Macau, where UFRN, in partnership with the Open University of Brazil Program, offers academic qualification opportunities. One of the beneficiaries of this initiative is Leoto Barbosa Sousa. Recently graduated in EaD Physics, he highlights that “distance higher education is the result of a public policy that I believe is essential for the contemporary world, so that the difficulties are suppressed by the advantages offered by the modality”.
A resident of Natal, Leoto Barbosa even started the distance learning Chemistry course, in 2007, but due to personal problems he had to give up the course. The second chance came with the possibility of studying Physics, in the same modality and at the same center. The interest in the area of Exact Sciences made Leoto fit quickly into the new course, so much so that he was awarded an academic laurel by UFRN.
“Being laureated is like having had the recognition of a job executed with all the zeal and commitment. So I spent many days researching to understand, in its entirety, the contents covered,” he celebrates when talking about the award. The graduation ceremony took place last month, but Leoto Barbosa does not want to rest, he is already studying the possibility of returning to the UFRN benches as a master’s degree student.
Bruno Cássio – Communication Advisor of SEDIS/UFRN.
“The biggest challenge was having to balance work, studies, and family care. I work two shifts and have a 2-year-old son, I studied many times at dawn or when my son slept at night”, this is Ana Paula Dantas da Silva’s account. Born in Caicó, in the Seridó Region of Rio Grande do Norte, at the age of 32, she has just accomplished an old goal: to conclude a distance learning Bachelor’s Degree in Languages at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN).
The daily marathon of Ana Paula, a former student of the Caicó branch, was rewarded. In the graduation ceremony, held last month, she received the academic laurel, UFRN’s highest recognition for the students who stood out the most during the graduation course. “I can’t even put into words what I felt at that moment. I went through many difficulties during the course, many things made me think about giving up. Being a laureate in a course that I always dreamed of doing was the best feeling in the world,” she commented as she recalled the night of her graduation.
Thinking about the future of her professional and academic career, she says she has already started a specialization course and intends to get a master’s and a doctorate: “being a teacher is a challenge in a country that does not value education, it is necessary to always be updated and seek new knowledge and I intend to return to the university as a teacher to pay back all the learning I have acquired”, she concluded, overcome with emotion.
DE as a tool for transformation
“EaD in my life was a very important tool for the realization of a childhood dream, I’ve always been a sports lover, because I know that sports transform lives, fulfill dreams, and form citizens who contribute to a more just, egalitarian, and harmonious society”, this is how Aluísio Rodrigues Júnior, 36 years old, defines the transforming role of Distance Education in his life.
Born in Campo Redondo/RN, Júnior Rodrigues, as he is better known, completed his degree in Physical Education at the UFRN pole in Currais Novos. Just like Ana Paula, he also received the academic laurel, in April 2022: “the movie with all the plots goes through your head, the difficulties, the challenges and the fears, but also the moments of happiness, the friendships built and the knowledge acquired”.
According to the now Physical Educator, “the responsibility of being a training agent increases the challenge and generates positive expectations for the future.
Bruno Cássio – Communication Advisor of SEDIS/UFRN.
The deadline for submitting papers to simultaneous international events that will discuss themes such as Education and Technologies and Distance Education has been extended until May 30th, 2022. Authors can send texts in the format of “COMPLETE WORK” or as “EXPANDED SUMMARY”, and there is also the option of “THEMATIC PANEL”. Interested parties who have completed or ongoing research on Distance Education or Educational Technologies may also submit papers for evaluation.
In 2022, the Brazilian Congress on Distance Higher Education (ESUD) and the International Congress on Distance Higher Education (CIESUD) will be held together with the Meeting of Researchers in Education and Technologies (EnPET) and the International Congress on Education and Technologies (CIET) in two stages: a virtual one, from 10/31/22 to 11/11/22, and a face-to-face one, from 11/11/22 to 11/16/22, in São Paulo, capital city of Brazil. Around 400 papers are expected to be submitted.
It is organized by the Study and Research Group on Innovation in Education, Technologies and Languages (Horizonte Group) from the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar), in partnership with the General Office of Distance Education (SEaD) of the institution and the University in Network Association (UniRede). According to UFSCar professor and president of the organizing committee, Daniel Mill, “the articulation of the four events was due to the proximity of the EaD and Education and Technologies themes, adding efforts to give more visibility to the 2022 edition of these events”.
For Professor Carmem Rêgo, Distance Education Secretary of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN) and representative of the Federal Institutions of Higher Education in UniRede, “holding the ESUD/CIESUD in Natal last year, in a hybrid format, expanded the possibilities of discussion about Technology-Mediated Education and, now, the expectation is that the actors who make EaD in Brazil will meet again, in person, in São Paulo, after almost three years without face-to-face events”.
With graduates of the poles of Macau, São Gonçalo do Amarante and Parnamirim, was held on the afternoon of Monday (18), the graduation ceremony for the course of Literature, distance learning, the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), for the period 2021. The event was the first graduation ceremony attended by the public, after the suspension of university activities in person, due to the covid-19 pandemic, materializing the transition from a period of difficulties imposed by the new coronavirus.
According to Sulemi Campos, coordinator of the EaD Language course and class president, the resumption of classroom activities brought a feeling of belonging. The professor pointed out that the initiative to hold the ceremony also came from the students: “I found it interesting that the demand to have this face-to-face graduation came from the students themselves, some of them who suffered with the pandemic and lost their loved ones, they really wanted to be here as a tribute to those who were and to those who stayed”.
The students paid homage to Francinete Pedro dos Santos, an employee of the Distance Education Department (SEDIS/UFRN), who gave the class its name. According to Francinete dos Santos, the students faced difficulties throughout the formative process. “During the pandemic period, we could not offer the on-site internships in schools. This was a point that, in a way, helped to unite the class at this difficult time,” she said, remembering the challenges faced by the group of undergraduates.
Even with the scenario that still generates doubts, Nair Matias, class speaker, brought good expectations for new academic formation plans: “our next step is to move on, to do a post-graduation course. Many of my colleagues are going to try to get a master’s degree here at UFRN, some have already started, just like me. We want to follow and conclude this path of university life. Who knows, maybe dreaming about a doctorate”, she concluded enthusiastically.
Online graduation
Last Wednesday (13), part of the EaD graduates of Letras EaD decided to participate in the graduation ceremony in a remote format. Just like the presential graduation, the ceremony was presided by professor Josenildo Soares Bezerra, vice-director of the Center of Humanities, Letters and Arts (CCHLA), and counted with the participation of professors, tutors and representatives of the pole coordinations.
Source: Gabriel Mascena and Letícia Meira – SEDIS/UFRN
