Innovation in Language Learning

The University of Coimbra (UC) is an indisputable reference in higher education and research in Portugal, due to the quality of the courses taught at its eight Faculties (Letters, Law, Medicine, Sciences & Technology, Pharmacy, Economics, Psychology & Education Sciences and Sports Sciences & Physical Education) and to the advances achieved in research in various areas of knowledge. This University is not only a true icon of Portuguese culture in the world, but it also pursues a policy of constant improvement in various fields, which allow it to reassert the high quality of research and teaching, as well as an active role in the development of businesses and industry. The history of UC dates back to the 13th century, since the University was established in 1290. Combining its long and valuable history with the pursuit for constant improvement, UC is considered as a Portuguese reference in the world, resulting not only from its history but especially from the activities that are here developed in the research and teaching fields as well as the participation in international contact networks. UC is among the major science and technology hubs for applied and fundamental research in Portugal. Over the years UC has received national and international funding for hundreds of research projects. Nowadays there are more than two hundred research projects being carried out, some of which are directly financed by EC and in which the university is the coordinator.



Teresa Pessoa is Associate Professor at the University of Coimbra, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences. She has a degree in Psychology and a PhD in Educational Sciences. She is member of the Ibero-American project “ Red iberoamericana para el desarrollo de una plataforma tecnológica de soporte a la evaluación de los procesos de formación” coordinated by the University of Barcelona 2012-2015 which main purpose is to develop a technological platform to support the evaluation of training processes based on open tools, taking advantage of the free software to create a repository of tools and free online resources. She participated in LLP European projects namely: CyberTraining-4-Parents - Cyberbullying and e-Training Courses for Adult Literacy Educators working with Parents (2010-2012), CyberTraining - A Research-Based Training Manual on Cyberbullying (2008-2010), and also coordinated the Portuguese team of an Iberian project “Casebook and Teacher Training”, and participated in a Luso-Brazilian project “Higher education: challenges and perspectives”. She is member of the IPCDVS a R&D unit of the University of Coimbra and she is an integrated member of Le@ds (http://lead.uab.pt), Open University. She is the pedagogical coordinator of the E-learning project of The University of Coimbra. She has participated in graduated and post-graduated courses at an international level in the field of Educational Technology and Teacher Training.