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Sharing IDEAs – distance learning has raised enormous challenges Back

Tuesday, 6/9/2020   
jsilva
Joaquim Silva, Programme Director of the Bachelor's Programme in Marketing of the School of Economics and Management of the University of Minho (EEGIUMInho) and member of the Centre for Innovation and Development of Teaching and Learning of UMinho (IDEA_UMinho), spoke of an initiative of the IDEA-UMinho Centre – Sharing IDEAs – and sheds light on the fact that "the need to resort to distance learning has raised enormous challenges.”
How would you define the Sharing IDEAs initiative in 4 words?
Sharing, Learning, Community, Innovation.

How did Sharing IDEAs appear?
The project Sharing IDEAs is an initiative launched by the IDEA-UMinho Centre (Centre for Innovation and Development of Teaching and Learning). It was created on 1 April 2020 in the context of COVID 19, which determined the suspension of in-person school activities. The need to resort to distance learning and learning methods has raised enormous challenges, which required a fast and quality response. Sharing IDEAs, while an informal space for reflection and co-creation of ideas and practices open to the entire educational community, allowed to overcome certain structural barriers inherent to organisational functioning, and thus fuelled the changes necessary to the design of a novel context of teaching and learning. It should be noted that UMinho has been at the forefront of this change, which should make us proud of the work done so far.

What is the main objective of this initiative?
Sharing IDEAs is open to the entire educational community, which aims to stimulate the sharing and learning among colleagues, the reflection on the challenges posed by distance teaching and learning, the promotion of good ideas and practices and the strengthening of collegiality. The talks take place in the late afternoon on Wednesday, around 18:30, in a very informal atmosphere.

What are the biggest difficulties that the initiative is struggling with?
There are not exactly difficulties. There is a very positive and informal attitude that renders Sharing IDEAs a very pleasant space of conversation and sharing of pedagogical and educational topics.

Who is the IDEAs Sharing initiative for?
Sharing IDEAs is for the entire educational community. It is worth mentioning that we have had the recurring presence of many faculty and staff members, students of UMinho, the president and leaders of the AAUM (the Students Union). We hosted professors from other Portuguese and Brazilian universities. We also had the pleasure of hosting the Rector of the University of Minho, Professor Rui Vieira de Castro, Professor Sandra Soares, Pro-Rector for Curricular Innovation and Internationalisation of the Education of the 1st and 2nd cycles and responsible for pedagogical innovation initiatives at her University, the President of the Student Union of UAveiro, and the Presidents of the Pedagogical Councils of the UOEIs of UMinho.

What are the topics of the sessions realised so far?
Throughout the ten sessions held so far, we have talked about several topics appropriate to the moment and the evolution of the pedagogical processes and educational status within the framework of distance learning and teaching. We started the Sharing IDEAs project with the first questions and guidelines for distance learning. We talked about the formative and summary evaluation, the conditions and needs of teachers and students, the promotion of student involvement, and the first appraisal of distance teaching and evaluation experiences. We have been evolving, and we have talked about the organisation and preparation of the upcoming school year. We reflect on the challenges launched by the initiative "Skills 4 COVID" to stimulate innovative teaching and learning practices and the promotion of activities of improvement, reconversion and certification of competencies for the foreseeable future. In the last session, held on 3rd June, we shared very interesting ideas about the challenges for quality systems in the current context of distance learning and teaching.

How has the feedback been from those who participate?
The feedback has been excellent. In general, the sessions have gathered more than a hundred participants, many of whom are assiduous to all sessions. When we hosted a visit from the Rector, we had more than 250 participants. As per the conversations in the sessions and the messages we received, the Sharing IDEAs initiative has had a significant impact on the educational community, fulfilling the purpose it was created to.

As a social being, the human being needs to communicate and constantly interact with the surrounding community. Is communication by virtual means here to stay? What will the future look like?
We are all learning from the challenges that have been posed by the situation of the social distancing that we experience. Face-to-face interaction is essential in teaching and learning processes and for our lives as human and social beings. As such, it is inconceivable that it will not continue into the future. Nevertheless, we also found that online tools have benefits that should continue to be explored. The combination of the advantages of both systems (face-to-face and virtual systems) will allow for the creation of pedagogical, social and individual value propositions that will unveil the best of us. In this sense, very soon, which is practically the present, universities are expected to develop mixed teaching and learning models, in which we can combine and blend the benefits of face-to-face and remote ones – blended teaching and learning approaches.

What suggestions would you like to utter to those who have not yet had the opportunity to participate in these sessions?
I would like to invite the entire educational community to visit the IDEAdigital project at the https://idea.uminho.pt/pt/ideadigital address, and to learn about the various initiatives of the IDEA Centre, such as Sharing IDEAs, the Blog and Digital Bulletins. These virtual venues shed light upon many short and fast suggestions and information shared to inform and inspire innovation in pedagogical practices. I also take this opportunity to address an invitation to participate in the next session of Sharing IDEAs that will take place on 17 June.
Gabinete de Comunicação
Escola de Economia e Gestão
Universidade do Minho
Phone: 253 604541
e-mail: gci@eeg.uminho.pt
jsilva