Teaching at Distance, a stress enhancing factor in higher education in times of COVID-19

Abstract

In Portugal, as in the world, successive confinements have forced people to make numerous adaptations to life in society and online teaching. A year since the moment the “world stopped”, there were several studies and analyses everywhere and within the scientific community of all areas of knowledge. In this context, this article presents some reflections on how the teaching and learning process in distance learning occurred in a higher education institution (HEI). A questionnaire survey was conducted on 101 of the 158 professors who teach at the Polytechnic Institute of Guarda. This analysis deals mainly with the use of technologies in teaching to understand the impact of the pandemic on teachers’ work in the context of online education and whether this has increased stress and working hours, seeking to establish some correlations such as gender, age or family situation. The results obtained show a great capacity of teachers to adapt to this new reality despite doubts and concerns at the beginning of the process. Other relevant aspects of this study point to the increase in work resulting from the need for more time to prepare classes, the adaptation of teaching materials, and reformulate the way the contents were taught.