Professors from the Open University of Portugal, Cristina Vieira and Natália Ramos, visited, on the afternoon of Monday (11), the facilities of the Distance Education Department of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, in Natal. The Portuguese professors came to Brazil to participate in the 3rd International Health Innovation Conference, which took place from April 4th to 7th in the capital city of Natal, and took the opportunity to get to know SEDIS.
During the visit, the Secretary of EaD/UFRN, Carmem Rêgo, highlighted the operation of the centers, distributed throughout the metropolitan area of Natal and the inland cities of Rio Grande do Norte. According to Carmem Rêgo, there are many similarities in the actions developed by the two institutions that have technical cooperation, because both work with Distance Learning, but in the case of the courses offered by UFRN, there is a peculiarity, emphasizes the manager, besides the synchronous and asynchronous activities in the Virtual Learning Environment, there are face-to-face meetings.
Accompanied by the coordinator of the International and Interinstitutional Relations Center of LAIS/UFRN, Juciano Lacerda, the visitors learned about the main actions developed by SEDIS, such as the production of content for AVASUS courses; the editing of audiovisual products; the publishing of printed and electronic books; the adaptation of materials for students with specific educational needs; the formatting of video classes, with interactive resources, for EaD undergraduate courses; and pedagogical support for students, tutors and teachers.
Cristina Vieira and Natália Ramos thanked the receptivity and talked about the relevance of the teamwork developed by SEDIS to strengthen distance education. The UAb/PT teachers return to Portugal on Tuesday (12) with excellent experiences in their luggage and the possibility of expanding existing partnerships.
Bruno Cássio – Communication Advisor of SEDIS/UFRN
The General Secretary of the Secretariat for Open and Digital Education Programs (SPREAD) at the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE), Alberto Poza, visited this Friday (11) the Distance Education Department at UFRN. At Sedis, he was welcomed by the Secretary of EaD/UFRN, Carmem Rêgo, by the Pedagogical Coordinator of EaD/UFRN, Lilian Giotto Zaros de Medeiros, and by the Requirements and Business Analyst from the Information Technology Superintendence (STI/UFRN), Vielimir Silva Luz.
Alberto Poza came to discuss institutional partnerships for the development of projects related to technology-mediated education. According to the Secretary of SPREAD/UFPE, “this is a moment of experience exchange in the area of distance education for the construction of a future collaboration work, between UFRN and the Pernambuco university, in this area”.
The Secretary of EaD/UFRN is expected to return this visit soon. According to Carmem Rêgo, “Distance Education at the University is consolidated as an important instrument for professional qualification, especially for those who work in Basic Education, and this kind of knowledge exchange is always important”.
After getting to know the work of the various sectors that make up Sedis, the representative from the Pernambuco university declared he was impressed with the commitment of the collaborators in favor of EaD at UFRN.
Bruno Cássio – Communication Advisor at SEDIS/UFRN
On March 28th, 2022, the school year will start at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), with a long-awaited novelty: the resumption of face-to-face academic activities. With this in mind, the Dean of Undergraduate Studies (Proex), the Dean of Personnel Management (Progesp), and the Department of Distance Education (Sedis) have sought alternatives to reduce the impacts of the transition from emergency remote learning, the model adopted due to the covid-19 pandemic, to the reoccupation of classrooms.
Among these alternatives is the possibility of adopting a percentage of up to 20% (twenty percent) of the total workload of classroom courses, offered in the distance learning modality. This option is supported both by national legislation and at UFRN, according to the Undergraduate Course Regulations in Resolution 171/2013 – CONSEPE and Resolution 28/2019 – CONSEPE. In this sense, the partnership between Prograd, Progesp and Sedis made it possible to offer the course “Distance Education in Presential Teaching: strategies for teaching action”.
According to Ione Morais, EaD/UFRN Assistant Secretary, coordinator of the initiative aimed at the teachers of classroom education, “this course presents a conceptual approach about distance education and its characteristics, the institutional and pedagogical design of EaD at the University and the characteristics of the Moodle Mandacaru Academic Virtual Learning Environment, as a space for teaching action”. The first stage of the training occurred synchronously through videoconferences.
Besides Ione Morais, teachers Lilian Zaros and Tânia Garcia, from the SEDIS Multidisciplinary Team, acted as module instructors. Now, the course is in the self-instructional phase, and can be accessed through Progesp’s Virtual Learning Environment, AVAProgesp. According to Michelle Paiva Cruz, Progesp’s Director of People Development, “the intention is to develop competencies, for a public with a complex workload, allowing time management and work on strategic activities”.
Two thousand and six hundred vacancies were offered. The adhesion and the reach of this public were only possible because of the technological mediation. For UFRN’s Assistant Dean of Graduation, Elda Silva do Nascimento Melo, “the expectation is that we can advance in the various possibilities of interaction and development of the teaching and learning process, forming qualified professionals and maintaining UFRN’s characteristic excellence”.
Geographical distances are not limiting for those who want to finish a higher education course at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN). One such example comes from Luís Gomes, a town about 470 kilometers from Natal. Emanuela Fernanda Ismael, 25, is a student of a degree in Physics in EaD modality, at the UFRN campus that operates in that city. She is about to graduate and this week she realized an old dream: to visit the Central Campus and the labs of the Physics Department.
Last Wednesday (23), Emanuela Fernanda and five other students from the center faced a six-hour trip. In an emotional account, she recalled what she experienced: “we left at two in the morning from Luís Gomes for this visit, and returned at seventeen, everyone exhausted, but with our minds full of new ideas”. The student classified the experience as “very rich”, capable of adding new knowledge and opening new possibilities for teaching.
The Coordinator of the Physics Distance Learning Course, Bruno Canto, says that the idea of making this visitation came from the student and that this mobilized the city hall of Luís Gomes, which allocated a bus, and UFRN’s Distance Learning Department, which got logistical support for the students. They got to know the Mechanics, Electromagnetism, Waves and Optics, and Modern Physics laboratories, which, according to the Professor, served as motivation for the studies and for the search for a master’s or doctorate course.
The Professor of the Physics Department, Edimilson Félix, accompanied the group of students on this scientific outing: “it was a morning of a lot of learning and discoveries, I hope this has motivated the participants and that it becomes recurrent”, he concluded. For Manuela Fernanda, who is an elementary school teacher and has already enrolled in the Professional Master’s course in Physics Teaching at UFRN, there is the certainty that distance education continues with its purpose of democratizing the access to a public and quality university.
Bruno Cássio – Communication Advisor at SEDIS/UFRN.
