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

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

The tools made available by these services allow distance classes, group meetings, information sharing, and telecommuting, providing an important aid for maintaining teaching and research activity within the exceptional circumstances the country is experiencing.

The use of services such as COLIBRI, a tool made available for holding classes and meetings via teleconference, has increased significantly in recent days. Generally the average use of the service is 210 meetings a day, with 1,990 users, but last 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 indispensable in this period imposed by the Covid-19 containment measures, so the list of all accessible services follows:

COLIBRI - provides virtual meeting rooms that allow classes and meetings to be held at a distance. The videoconference sessions have capacity for up to 300 participants and it is possible to share audio, video, text, images, whiteboard and screen. The sessions can be recorded, for later recording and availability, through the Educast service.

VIDEOCAST - allows live video transmission worldwide, via Internet, without ads or interruptions. The content is shared in a simple way, through a web page with integrated chat, being possible to share a class or training with all those who have 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, namely classes, trainings or tutorials. This publication is done by uploading to a searchable portal, which aggregates more than 22 thousand 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 - 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 telecommuting employees, 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, but allows anyone to receive the files.