Online teaching a new challenge in contemporary times: competences of university teachers from Portugal and Brazil

Abstract

Teacher training for the development of digital skills is a key factor for in pedagogical innovation in Distance Higher Education. Taking into account the difficulties of many professors to work in this modality and the lack of training programs for online education, this study focus on professors’ competencies for online teaching in Higher Education. This article presents results regarding professors' perception about their competences for the exercise of teaching online. Under an online survey was used as data collection instrument. It was applied to professors who carry out online teaching activities in public or private higher education institutions in Brazil and Portugal, as they represent the Portuguese speaking countries with the greatest international relevance in the field of provision in this context. The study involved a simple non-probability sampling process, composed of 277 university professors, of which 236 from Brazil and 41 from Portugal. Descriptive statistical analysis and parametric tests were conducted to assess the differences between the professors’ perceptions of both nationalities. The results show that these teachers have favorable self-perceptions regarding their knowledge of content, pedagogy, technology as well as regarding their transversal skills associated with online education. However, they perceive some difficulty in effectively integrating different knowledges (scientific and pedagogical) with technology in their pedagogical practices. The differences found between countries were not statistically significant. The need to invest in professors’ training is detected, especially in the area of technologies and their integration with pedagogical and content knowledge.