Uso de videoconferência para defesas de teses e dissertações na UFMG em tempos de COVID-19

Abstract

Due to the pandemic caused by the outbreak of the new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) that caused COVID-19, teaching, research and extension activities were initially suspended and later adjusted to the remote format. Among all the activities developed at universities, the changes in the defense of theses and dissertations stand out, in which the results of scientific research developed in the Postgraduate Programs are presented, starting in 2020. This generated the need for graduate programs adapt to this momentary reality in order to continue their activities through information technology solutions, remotely and with the virtual presence of the banking sector. In this scenario, this study aims to present the actions implemented by the graduate programs of the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), during the pandemic period, for the holding of thesis and dissertation defense sessions by videoconference, aiming to highlight the benefits of this practice in the context of scientific communication. To this end, as a data collection technique, it was decided to conduct a documentary research by consulting the websites of UFMG postgraduate departments and collecting data using an online questionnaire to identify information about the conduct of the research sessions. defenses. The research participants comprised 34 graduate programs with grades 6 and 7, selected on the SUCUPIRA platform and which were subsequently analyzed. The results of the survey indicate that most programs publish an online defense agenda by videoconference, and in some cases, it is open to the general public. Applications such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet and YouTube have been used. However, no records were found that these audiovisual materials have been stored in any type of system, leading to reflections on actions to make these recordings available and preserved.