Abstract:

Introduction:
On March 18, the state of emergency was declared in Portugal in view of the exceptional situation of global public health and the proliferation of registered cases of COVID-19. In order to contain the progression of the pandemic, measures were adopted and mandatory confinement was imposed on all citizens. In this context, the education system was faced with the challenge of continuing to train students, replacing face-to-face teaching with online and distance training. Woessmann (2003) states that online training is not as developed as face-to-face training and Goodman (2019) points out that the learning capacity is greater with face-to-face teaching, especially for students with greater difficulties and / or needs for greater personal and individualized support. Mälinen (2018) highlights the importance of teacher involvement in online education, the quality of digital platforms, the ease and repeated interaction between students and the continuous assessment of knowledge for an effective consolidation of knowledge.

Methodology:
In order to understand the perceptions of Portuguese students of social work on the effects of replacing face-to-face teaching with distance learning in their teaching-learning process during the confinement period (March to June 2020), a quantitative study was carried out through the application of a online survey to 94 students who, at the time, were attending the course at the Lusófona University of Humanities and Technologies, in Lisbon.

Results:
The survey revealed that most of our students (80%) showed concern about the situation of confinement and a negative perception of its impact on emotional well-being (77.7%). In terms of learning, 44.7% showed a decrease in interest and 38.3% a decrease in participation in non-face-to-face sessions, marked by a work overload greater than face-to-face teaching (87.2%). Despite this situation, 60.6% considered that confinement brought benefits to their learning process, translating, for 62.7% of them, into an improvement in academic results.

Keywords:

Perceptions, Teaching-learning, Distance learning, Students, Social Work, Covid-19, Portugal.