FCT strengthens the 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, derived above all from the Covid-19 containment measures, which forced higher education and research institutions to close their doors temporarily, exponentially increasing distance work in the community.

The tools provided by these services make it possible to operate distance classes, group meetings, information sharing and teleworking, providing an important aid for maintaining teaching and research activity in the exceptional circumstances that the country is going through.

The use of services such as COLIBRI, a tool made available for teleconferencing classes and meetings, has increased significantly in recent days. Usually the average use of the service is 210 meetings a 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 in this period imposed by the Covid-19 containment measures, so here is a list of all the accessible services:

COLIBRI - offers virtual meeting rooms that allow classes and meetings to be held remotely. Videoconferencing sessions can accommodate up to 300 participants and audio, video, text, images, whiteboard and screen can be shared. Sessions can be recorded and made available at a later date via the Educast service.

VIDEOCAST - allows you to broadcast live video to the whole world via the Internet, without ads or interruptions. The content is shared simply via a web page with integrated chat, making it possible to share a lesson or training with everyone who has access to the transmission link, with the option of password control. The service is compatible with the main internet browsers and mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.

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

NAU - Sempre a Aprender - 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 teleworking employees, it is possible to give them the opportunity to improve their skills in various areas of knowledge.

FILESENDER - is a platform for the secure sharing of files that are too large to be sent by email. It has a maximum sending 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.