The COVID-19 pandemic led the Unicamp Rectory to suspend, on March 12, the University's in-person teaching activities. Four days later, the Rectory released an emergency program for undergraduate and postgraduate courses and disciplines, with the aim of preserving academic activities for the 1st semester of 2020.
The program defined that the coordination of undergraduate and postgraduate courses at Unicamp would be responsible for establishing the migration to digital education activities. The management of the Gleb Wataghin Institute of Physics (IFGW) acted quickly and called on coordinators and professors to find solutions on how to do something that had never been done in the entire history of the University.
"Our institute and other teaching and research units at Unicamp were faced with the immense challenge of migrating all their in-person teaching activities to remote teaching”, said the professor Pascoal José Giglio Pagliuso, director of IFGW.
Suddenly, 84 IFGW teachers had to find alternatives to continue teaching activities, teaching classes to students isolated in their homes. All of them, teachers and students, physically separated from each other and far from the Barão Geraldo campus.
"In a few days, with immense effort from teachers, staff and students, our Institute developed an Emergency Remote Teaching Plan for more than 60 subjects, including undergraduate and postgraduate courses, reaching around 5 thousand Unicamp student enrollments and reducing the impact of the pandemic throughout our academic community,” said Pagliuso.
Teachers and students in the IFGW Teaching Internship Program (PEDs) had to adapt what they had planned for the semester, such as the calendar of activities or assessment, and readjust theoretical and experimental subjects. Everything they planned before starting the school year had to be revised.
"This semester, I am teaching the Structure of Matter course, which is the students' first contact with Quantum Mechanics. I have taught this course several times and had all my preparation done and my class notes ready. I had to change the routine I was used to a lot,” he said. Marcus Aguiar, professor at IFGW for 30 years.
Aguiar highlights the difficulties and complexity of migration. “Right after the Undergraduate Coordination announced that we would have to teach remotely, there was a rush to download applications, understand how they work and prepare all the classes again. I have been recording classes via Zoom and publishing them along with the slides I present in class on a website for students to access. I already posted the handwritten notes,” he said.
The sudden change also worried Eduardo Miranda, a professor at Unicamp since 1997 and who is teaching Electrodynamics I this semester. “At first, I was nervous. I thought there was no way, that it wouldn't work. But I learned how to use the tools, I did tests with students, I talked to former students who are abroad about their experiences with digital teaching. I tested Google Meet and Zoom and ended up preferring the first. It was difficult, but within a week I had established a method for teaching my subject,” she said.
Another digital resource that Miranda continues to employ is the use of a tablet to assist with the exhibition. “And now I’ve integrated Google Meet. I'm going to explain, teaching my class as I would, only in a virtual environment. And, in the end, the video of me speaking to the students and writing on the tablet is also available on the internet. It didn't happen before. I didn't record myself teaching. Now, I do this,” said Miranda.
Online classrooms
The teacher Gabriela Castellano teaches and coordinates the subject of Experimental Physics III, one of the Basic subjects that serves students not only from Physics, but from various units at Unicamp. This semester, the discipline has around 1 students enrolled.
“As we already had recorded classes, we asked students to watch the videos and then met with them using online systems such as Google Meet. Students also ask questions about exercises with the post-doctoral fellows who help with the course. In class, we draw an exercise that students must do and submit at the end, using Google Classroom.
In another subject taught by Castellano, Medical Imaging with Non-Ionizing Radiation, the teacher has experimented with several resources. “During class time, I share my notes on the computer screen while describing the topics covered. Before class, I record short videos on my cell phone, lasting around 10 minutes each, which I intersperse during the conversation, also through Google Meet. In each subject we discover the best way to teach the class,” she said.
In postgraduate studies, teachers have also used various tools to support remote teaching, he explains Marco Cesar de Oliveira, IFGW Postgraduate Coordinator. “This semester, we have 10 subjects, with 10 teachers. Coincidentally, this time there is no more experimental discipline, they are all theoretically based, which helped us. We have given lists of subjects for students to study and scheduled meetings via Skype or Google Meet. We are trying to maintain all activities and both teachers and students have been trying hard,” he said.
“In the subject I teach, Introduction to Information Theory, I have been teaching using Zoom. Classes are recorded and are then available for other students to watch. There is a practical part, of developing programs, that students can do at home”, said Oliveira.
Varlei Rodrigues and the other teachers who teach Introduction to Electronics, a subject in the fifth semester of Physics, adopted Microsoft Teams for their classes. “It is a platform widely used in remote meetings. It's free, easy to use and students' logins are the same as those they use in Unicamp's systems. Another advantage is that all the documents we place are in the repository and integrated with questions and conversations between teachers and students. Everything is recorded and can be consulted at any time”, he said.
For several IFGW teachers, the Emergency Remote Teaching Plan meant expanding what was already being done. The use of virtual learning environments has been a fundamental part of the curriculum of various subjects for years. This is the case of Introduction to Theoretical Physics, taught in the first semester of 2020 by Rickson Coelho Mesquita, Undergraduate Coordinator at IFGW.
“It is a subject with a very active methodology, in which the student has to work a lot outside the classroom. We have been working with virtual learning environments for a long time, especially Moodle. We have theoretical classes that have been recorded over the last few years and students watch and then use Moodle to solve problems related to the topic studied,” she said.
“The migration to remote teaching has been smooth but we had to make adjustments, for example, in the class time that was dedicated to projects. Before isolation, we used IFGW laboratories, with excellent infrastructure to carry out projects and, now, students are using more creativity to carry out experiments with the materials they have at home”, said Mesquita.
Professor Thiago Pedro Mayer Alegre, who teaches the subjects of Experimental Physics III and Seminars on the Profession, also highlights the importance of using virtual learning environments at IFGW.
“We have been using Moodle for several years, mainly for basic subjects, called coordinated subjects. Moodle is a centralization tool that allows subject texts, questionnaires, report scripts, student questions, exercises, all of this to be centralized on the platform”, he said.
“Throughout the week, we have online questions sessions. During class times, we meet with students, also via Google Meet. We are experimenting with recording some of these sessions, with the students' permission, and publishing them on our Moodle channel, which is a private channel for the subject within the Unicamp network. The idea is that students who cannot be at those opening hours check these meetings later,” he said.
Distance experimental activities
If migrating more theoretical classes to digital teaching is already complicated, what about classes that largely depend on experimental activities? It is a change that requires a lot of creativity and dedication, but IFGW professors have managed to teach their subjects regardless of how much they lost when students stopped attending classrooms and laboratories.
For six years at the Institute, Alessandra Tomal She is a professor of Medical Physics and Biomedical Physics courses, teaching professional subjects in the third and fourth year of graduation. “This semester, I am teaching the subject Radiation Interaction and Detection, in which most of the classes are conducted in the laboratory. It was necessary to adopt a new schedule so that, at first, we would have theoretical classes, complemented with concept discussion and research activities by students on types of instruments used to measure radiation. At the same time, I provide them with information about the equipment in general, so they know the basic principles of operation,” she said.
She explains that for her class, which has 23 fourth-year undergraduate students, migration has not been particularly difficult. “But in remote teaching we need to be more succinct, more creative, we have to motivate more, show where to apply and the importance of what we are teaching. It’s a big challenge for everyone and we are learning together”, said Tomal.
Felippe Alexandre Silva Barbosa teaches the subject of Physics Laboratories 4, whose development plan for the subject involves four components to be covered by students. Of the four components, only one cannot be done through distance learning, as it involves carrying out experiments in the laboratory. “We are using the digital teaching period to do an 'intensive' on the other three components of the subject: planning the experiment, analyzing data and presenting what was learned in the form of a report”, he said.
“Students are also using simulators available on the internet and following experiments. I had recorded laboratory experiments in which, as they were performed, students could view on video – and pause whenever they wanted – the information on the instrument screens and other details. This is what they would have to do in the laboratory,” said Barbosa.
Introduction to Electronics is another subject with many experimental activities that have been adapted for remote teaching. “In laboratory classes, students collect data and assemble circuits on the bench. Now, we are carrying out simulations in Tinkercad, a free online application that allows you to assemble circuits, whose capacitors and other components are not represented schematically, but in three-dimensional figures as if they were real components. If they put it together wrong, the circuit won’t work”, said Varlei Rodrigues.
Tinkercad has also been used by Experimental Physics teachers for activities that would be carried out in IFGW laboratories.
Video classes
Lázaro Aurélio Padilha Junior teaches General Mechanics, one of the first disciplines in the professional core. As the classes are fundamentally theoretical, the teacher decided to record them on video. “I thought the result was good, but soon after classes started, students sent messages complaining that they couldn't read the blackboard or that the sound was bad. It’s a big challenge to learn how to do a decent video lesson and the students have helped me a lot with that,” he said.
“We have been recording classes and posting them on YouTube and using class times to answer students’ questions, with the help of Google Meet and Google Classroom. In my case, Thursday is exercise day. I take the week's content, which they watched in class on video, and do a Google Meet in which I prepare an exercise and then we solve it together on a virtual whiteboard”, said Padilha.
Experimental Physics teachers have also had good results with recording video classes, which have served as support for teaching this semester, so much so that they should continue to use the resource even after face-to-face classes return.
“We are producing video classes with the content that would be explored in each semester. And we have been publishing the videos on YouTube so that they can be immediately accessed by students. This is important because those who do not have broadband access at home can watch classes on their cell phones, as some telephone operators offer unlimited access to YouTube. The original videos, without YouTube compression, are also available in our academic repository on Moodle”, said Thiago Alegre.
Good results and lessons for the future
With the COVID-19 pandemic far from over, IFGW's Emergency Remote Teaching Plan continues to be in full operation. There are fewer questions and problems than at the beginning of the migration, but they still exist. “Because of this, we created a coordination, the Digital Teaching Support Space, with three teachers who have experience in using digital teaching tools and who are providing support to other teachers”, said Rickson Mesquita.
Whether in person or remotely, each subject has its own particularities and each teacher has their own way of teaching. Because of this, the Emergency Plan ends up bringing together different attempts and experiences, all very valuable.
“No one does it the same way, everyone has their own preferences, but everyone is open and listening to what others are doing. Everyone is learning and adapting very well. I even think that some of the things I am learning to do I will keep after the isolation is over, I will migrate to the classroom”, said Eduardo Miranda.
Pascoal Pagliuso highlights the efforts of IFGW teachers and praises the result. “We are producing important, quality material that will be available not only to current students but to those in future classes. Of course, this will not replace traditional, face-to-face teaching, but it will be valuable support material not only for Unicamp, but for students from other institutions in the country”, said the director of IFGW.
Videos, class notes and other materials for subjects taught by IFGW teachers can be accessed on the teachers' pages at https://sites.ifi.unicamp.br.
IFGW teachers participate in the Task Force against COVID-19
Unicamp's COVID-19 Task Force was created with the aim of structuring the university and its community to face the current pandemic. The Task Force operates on the following fronts: Diagnosis; Research and Development; Basic Research; Disclosure; Fund-raising; Articulation; Clinical Trials; and Epidemiological Modeling. IFGW researchers have participated especially in activities involving technology.
“There were several isolated efforts at Unicamp in the technology area in relation to the coronavirus and we decided to bring everything together. At IFGW, several ideas have emerged. The first one was to create a website or application for remote patient screening. A person with a cough or fever can see a doctor virtually, without having to go to the hospital. Because the problem with going to the hospital is that if you have COVID-19 you can pass it on to others and if you don't have it, you can catch it. We discussed the idea with people from the Computing Institute, who continued running the project”, said professor Lázaro Padilha, member of the Task Force.
“We started thinking about physical agents against the coronavirus, especially using ultraviolet rays. There are several companies that manufacture devices for this, but they are expensive, over R$3. At IFGW, we have already developed two pieces of equipment to neutralize coronaviruses using ultraviolet light and two other devices together with partner companies, startups that were born from three former students of the Institute,” he said.
“We are arranging with the people at the Institute of Biology to test the equipment in the laboratory for coronavirus. Once up and running, our idea is to produce as quickly and as much as possible. To make one unit, the prototype, we spend around R$500. If we buy boxed lamps – the most expensive part of the equipment – the cost drops to less than R$350. In other words, at a fraction of the cost of traditional devices we will have a super-efficient sterilizer that we can donate to hospitals at Unicamp and in the region,” said Padilha.
Another example of IFGW's work in the Unicamp Task Force against COVID-19 is the production of masks using 3D printers for healthcare professionals at the Unicamp Hospital de Clínicas, explains Rickson Mesquita, who has been working on the initiative with two other professors. , in addition to two technicians and two students.
“We also created a discipline where students can develop collaborative projects to help in their respective communities, whether through the creation or distribution of materials such as masks, or by creating publicity material about COVID-19 to inform and enlighten residents of their neighborhoods and cities or analyzing data from the pandemic to try to estimate what will be happening in Brazil and the world in the coming months”, said Mesquita.
