Abstract:

Covid-19 pandemic has brought a huge challenge to all levels of the educational system. Teachers and students have gone from a traditional pattern of classroom teaching and learning with a relatively controlled environment to an alternative reality with online classes in a matter of a few weeks. This sudden change of environment was indeed a revolution to all the actors involved in the education process considering that the classroom paradigm and the teacher/student relationship were dramatically disrupted. New unexpected challenges emerged such as the need to adopt video and chat communication platforms such as ZOOM, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams. These tools were essential to enable online classes in a socially distant world. Distance learning is, however, very different from traditional classroom teaching with both teachers and students being unprepared for it. Universal access to internet and computers; classes dynamics and student engagement; pedagogic strategies; digital competences from teachers and students; and even mental health were factors to be held in consideration. This shift brought problems, but also opportunities to improve and adapt teaching methodologies, practices and tools.

We believe this still fresh context is worth exploring in order to contribute to further consistence to this educational investigation field. In this sense, we propose a case study among Communication students in Polytechnic of Guarda – Portugal, that can assess innovative methodologies and practices in education that emerged from this collective experience in distance learning and e-Learning. Our study will target a group upon which we will apply a survey and proceed to both quantitative and qualitative analysis of the data. The main goal was to identify, from this context, which were the good practices that could lead to improving learning processes and communication skills in students and future communication professionals in a post Covid- 19 world which is, in many areas, very different from before.

Keywords:

Covid-19, e-learning, Communication Skills, communication platforms, learning processes.