FCT strengthens capacity of services that ensure distance learning and teleworking in the academic and scientific community

Last week, the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), through the National Scientific Computing Unit (FCCN), reinforced the capacity of the main services it provides to the academic and scientific community, which ensure distance learning and teleworking. The measure taken aims to respond to the growing volume of activity in these services, mainly due to the Covid-19 containment measures, which forced higher education and research institutions to temporarily close their doors, exponentially increasing remote working in the community.

The tools provided by these services enable distance learning, group meetings, information sharing, and teleworking, providing important support for maintaining teaching and research activities under the exceptional circumstances the country is currently experiencing.

The use of services such as COLIBRI, a tool made available for conducting classes and meetings via teleconference, has seen a significant increase in recent days. Generally, the average use of the service is 210 meetings per day, with 1,990 users, but on March 12, in a single day, there were 3,574 meetings and 58,552 users.

These FCT services to support the academic and scientific community have become essential during this period imposed by Covid-19 containment measures. Below is a list of all accessible services:

COLIBRI – provides virtual meeting rooms that allow classes and meetings to be held remotely. Videoconferencing sessions can accommodate up to 300 participants and allow for the sharing of audio, video, text, images, whiteboards, and screens. Sessions can be recorded for later viewing and sharing through the Educast service.

VIDEOCAST – allows you to broadcast live video worldwide via the Internet, without ads or interruptions. Content is shared simply via a web page with integrated chat, making it possible to share a class or training session with anyone who has access to the broadcast link, with the option of password control. The service is compatible with major Internet browsers and mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets.

EDUCAST – allows you to record, edit, and publish educational videos, including lessons, training sessions, or tutorials. These videos are published by uploading them to a searchable portal, which aggregates more than 22,000 educational videos. Educast allows you to edit and publish videos using its own software in a simplified way, ensuring that the videos are available to students in multiple formats: streaming, desktop, and mobile.

NAU – Always Learning – is a platform that supports online courses for large audiences in MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) format. If the institution activates contingency plans with its employees working from home, it is possible to give them the opportunity to improve their skills in various areas of knowledge.

FILESENDER – is a platform for securely sharing files that are too large to be sent by email. It has a maximum upload limit of 100 GB and was developed with the specific requirements of the academic and scientific community in mind, while allowing anyone to receive the files.