ONLINE TEACHING AND LEARNING DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC THE CASE OF PORTUGUESE PUBLIC HIGHER EDUCATION

All over the world, because of the widespread public health emergency caused by Covid-19, Higher Education Institutions were forced to review their practices and, over a short period of time, had to design strategies, establish regulations, and outline support plans capable of supporting a wider and widely generalized use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in teaching and learning environments. This article presents the results obtained from a national study whose main objective was to understand the changes that have affected the teaching and learning practice in Portuguese Public Higher Education Institutions (PPHEI), from the perspective of students and teachers whose face-to-face teaching activities had to be suspended. The main data collection tool was an online questionnaire, which was answered by 1908 students and 453 teachers between May 4th and June 24th, 2020. The results obtained revealed that the PPHEI provided information, mainly through the institution email, not only about the pandemic, but also about teaching activities. The use of online learning platforms and applications was reinforced. Most of participants showed they had resources and conditions which allowed them to properly work online.