The e-Learning Model of a Language Center in Pandemic Times
Vitor Gonçalves, Polytechnic Institute of Bragança (Portugal)
Claúdia Mendes, Instituto Politécnico de Bragança (Portugal)
Abstract
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared, in March 2020, the situation caused by the covid-19 virus as a pandemic. The organization and functioning of the Language Center, as other educational centers and institutions, had to adapt its activity from a model completely dependent on the presence to a model completely online. Despite the initial panic among the trainers at the Language Centre, this process had to be swift, required online training for trainers to develop an online training model suitable for teaching Portuguese or foreign languages and involved adapting the educational relationship between trainees and trainers to the virtual world. It was a real challenge. In this perspective, this text addresses the process that a Language Center of a polytechnic institute in Portugal developed to react to the adversities it had to face in the context of the pandemic situation that took place to date. To assess the results of this process of (in)information, initial follow-up, technical support and corresponding experience in an educational context, a survey was carried out by questionnaire to the language center trainers. After evaluating the personal knowledge of each trainer, some main problems were detected: how to operate with platforms such as colibri zoom, which until then were unknown; how to adapt teaching and interaction processes in the classroom to the distance mode; how and which tools can support distance teaching and learning processes, etc. In short, in addition to specifying the relevant aspects of the methodologies of online training sessions and the pedagogical use of digital technologies, this text discussed the main considerations and results of the questionnaire.