Abstract:

Nowadays, online and virtual platforms play a key role in contemporary society. Digital technology has become ubiquitous and indispensable to our daily routines, whereas the educational field is not an exception. Higher Education Institutions (HEI), due to the transition to emergency remote learning during CoViD-19 pandemia, had to change the way programmes were delivered. At this moment, this fact has triggered on the part of HEIs, decision-makers and the educational community in general, the need to invest in the development and redesign of Pedagogical Models, as a social responsibility of the institution, besides the legal compliance with the accreditation agencies, of courses and institutions that promote distance learning. Online learning became a methodology that was acquired and that, in some situations, prevailed on time. However, delivering online learning has its own specificities and requires certain pedagogical adaptations, to which, sometimes faculty is not aware of. According to Decree-Law 133/2019, which approves the legal system of higher education provided at a distance, certain criteria are required to be reflected in the HEIs' official documents on this teaching-learning modality. Therefore, the design and conception of a pedagogical model for online learning and distance education is crucial, since HEIs have the responsibility, regardless of the contexts, to provide quality and inclusive education. Many online programmes are available for training but HEI have a significant role in providing a formal and certified training, founded on criteria of quality, flexibility and effectiveness and based on virtual learning platforms, grounded on adapted and personalised pedagogical models. This paper aims to present the distance learning pedagogical model of a HEI which is being developed for a quality distance learning offer. An extensive literature review was carried out, which allowed to know different pedagogical models applied in diverse contexts. A comparison of the different models was made, according to a set of defined criteria that emerged from the needs diagnosed in the HEI. This resulted in a proposal for a pedagogical model, based on the following principles: quality and learning experience; ethics and academic integrity; digital inclusion and accessibility; open science and environmental sustainability; flexibility; and interaction. The model will be validated by eLearning and pedagogical experts before it can be implemented as a model in the HEI.

Keywords:

e-learning, Pedagogical Model, Higher Education, Online Learning, Distance Education.