Desafios e avanços educacionais em tempos da COVID-19: a docência no Ensino Remoto em cursos de Engenharia

The challenges demanded by the pandemic caused by the contagion of COVID-19 were significant, especially in Engineering Education, an area where the subjects are mostly taught from expository classes and based on face-to-face assessments. In this sense, this paper aims to identify the limits and possibilities of online education for Engineering courses, based on qualitative research with coordinators and students of Engineering courses at a public institution. Three categories were used for the analysis, based on the official documents that regulate Distance Education in Brazil, namely: (i) conception of education and curriculum in the teaching-learning process; (ii) Didactic Material; (iii) Learning Assessment. As a result, it can be seen that there has been a significant advance in the use of technological resources by teachers, greater access by students to records and materials used in classes, a diversification of assessment instruments, and insecurity with the reliability of the evaluation process. It is concluded that, based on the experience accumulated during the teaching exercise in times of pandemic, there may be a significant transformation in teaching mediated by technologies, especially concerning the use of available technological resources. However, for the effective improvement of pedagogical processes in Engineering courses to occur, discussions need to be expanded and enhanced.