With the beginning of the academic year, FMUL, as well as several other schools, was faced with another challenge. How to articulate the threat to public health we are going through with our students' classes? Especially in a highly qualified, differentiated, technical and complex teaching such as Medicine? In April, with the quarantine, a plan was put in place with quick and effective tactics to overcome, as far as possible, the harmful effects of this period. However, now, in a new year, with students arriving and many of the basic years and clinicians anxious with what awaits them, it would be necessary to have an efficient and intelligent strategy, with the involvement of all employees, lecturers and administrative staff, in order to ensure the best possible online education.

Thus, several FMUL employees from different offices and areas were asked to support the theoretical classes, alongside continuing to do all the tasks they already had. This requires very good time management. I am one of those people [Sónia Teixeira- Innovation and Entrepreneurship Office]. And I can say that it has been both challenging and rewarding. Managing the various times of classes, with the schedules of others, and at the same time organizing all the work that is part of the Office where I work, is not easy, but with calm and organization it has been carried out. It has been a process where there is a great spirit of support and mutual help, whether from the Audio-visual team, always ready to answer questions, or from the support of the secretariat of the subjects. Among the colleagues who provide support, there is fantastic cooperation, we have all managed to overcome this challenge together. At the same time, both the attitude of lecturers and students has been excellent and understanding in the face of any technological setback that arises, also supporting us in the best possible way. Like me, many colleagues had to adapt and it was with great pride that, at my invitation, I received several testimonials telling about the challenges, opportunities, setbacks and gains that we have experienced.

Thank you, colleagues, for your testimonials and for your infinite generosity, as, at a time like this, you still found time to write about how you feel.

“After 20 years working as a librarian at FMUL, I never imagined that I would still experience moderate anxiety about a new task. Before starting the Zoom session of each theoretical class I support, the fear of failure prevails. However, as the class proceeds, it fades away and I feel the satisfaction of having fulfilled the task and make the recording available to its target audience: the students of this great Academy.”

Sofia Amador / Librarian in the Library and Information Area

 

“The experience of joining the Support Team for videoconference classes has been largely rewarding and enriching. In addition to the learning provided by a new responsibility, it also gave me the opportunity to continue to contribute, with commitment, to this collective challenge that all of us - Lecturers, Technicians, Administrative Staff and Students – addressed from the beginning, continuing to fulfil, with the greatest dedication and despite the uncertainties, our mission and our role in the community.”

Paula Gomes/ Senior Technician

 

“I admit that at first I was quite apprehensive, the task of supporting online classes was assigned to us very close to the beginning of classes, and for me it was a totally new thing. Will I have the time to learn how to do this? One thing we learned from the pandemic is that we cannot take anything for granted, in this case ideal conditions to learn in temporal and physical terms, so, once again, we adapt and do our best. I attended the training courses, both for administrative staff and for lecturers, I asked the most experienced colleagues to clarify doubts (and if…? what if…? And I learned that it was just another challenge. It is one more task to accumulate with all the others I already had, aggravated by the fact that classes have fixed times, which requires greater discipline in terms of work organization. In the first class, I was restless and I couldn't even take on other tasks at the same time, I could not focus on anything else. In the following ones, and increasingly more so, I can relax and do other things at the same time, despite my ears being always attentive to the the classes. I am fortunate to know almost all the lecturers in the classes I support, which makes the task a little easier. It is also rewarding to know that the lecturers are at ease and thankful, even if our support is, in most cases, to be connected.”

Paula Belmonte / University Paediatric Clinic

 

“Supporting virtual classes has been both challenging and rewarding. Challenging, because the classes are all different, sometimes the lecturer is unable to share his presentation, other times the students have problems entering the session, and then our presence is amply justified. And the possibility that, through the recordings made, the students can listen to the classes later, improves their academic experience. And there comes the rewarding aspect of this experience, knowing that we are facilitating access to classes safely for hundreds of students and future doctors.

Of course, without the collaboration of all colleagues from different areas and especially from the Audio-visual office, as well as our ability to organize things quickly, none of this would be possible.”

(Anonymous)

 

“I admit that at this stage it is not being too difficult to combine things, because I am only supporting classes in year 5 Surgery, which is just one day a week. However, there are seminars from 2:30 pm to 6:30 pm, outside my working hours… To be able to support these classes I have to work from home (1x a week - now we stay at home every 2 weeks, but this is recent ). On those days, I will have to ask someone to pick up my son from school, who leaves at 5:30 pm from the extracurricular activity class... On the other days, class support ends at 3:30 pm, which leaves only 30 minutes of my schedule. Being at home doesn't make a difference to me, but if I was at FMUL, it would make train schedules more complicated and I would arrive home later. (…) Well, by this I mean that although we have to manage our work, which is no small feat, with this increased support, which is sometimes not easy, I consider it important that we manage to do it in a crisis situation, in real support and team work, as long as we can take this forward as best as we can.”

(Anonymous)

 

Sónia Teixeira

Editorial Team