3.1 Remote teaching

Following the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil, a series of government measures were implemented to protect and prevent the population from contracting the SARS-CoV-2 virus (^{Silva; Fumes, 2023}). Thus, based on the obligation of social isolation, UFRJ suspended undergraduate academic activities for an indefinite period in order to comply with the emergency recommendations of public health agencies. In this sense, it was necessary to use new social, economic, and educational strategies to continue higher education in the country (UFRJ, 2020) (^{Brasil, 2020a}).

In order to enable education, UFRJ developed curricular adaptations as a solution to the current problem. The first emergency resolution published was Resolution No. 1/2020, which provided for graduation during the COVID-19 pandemic period, and the second was Resolution No. 2/2020, which provided for the defense of undergraduate coursework during the same period. Both events, important for the students' education, had to be held remotely via videoconference.

The remote modality began to be adopted for teaching from Ordinance No. 343, published on March 17, 2020, which determined remote teaching as a fundamental alternative for this period (^{Brasil, 2020a}). However, after the rectory's evaluative research with the team from the Pro-Rectory for Student Policies (PR-7) on socioeconomic issues, social vulnerability, accessibility to the Internet and technological equipment for low-income university students, it was observed that there was a need to create financial aid programs so that it would be possible to promote the democratic and equal return of curricular activities through remote teaching (Conexão UFRJ, 2021).

The financial aid programs aimed to: “Democratize and expand the conditions of permanence at UFRJ, providing undergraduate or graduate students in a situation of socio-economic vulnerability with the technical conditions necessary for internet access” (Pró-Reitor de Políticas Estudantis, 2021).

In this sense, Digital Inclusion Aid, COVID-19 Emergency Aid, and Emergency Meal Delivery Aid were distributed. These aids are governed by Consuni Resolution 2/2019. However, with the aim of democratizing education, the Undergraduate Teaching Council (CEG) was authorized by Consuni to change the Academic Calendar if the conditions for digital inclusion (Sindcard and equipment) and Temporary Emergency Aid were not implemented as planned (Conexão UFRJ, 2020; UFRJ/PR1, 2020).

The reorganization of the academic curriculum generated new questions about the adaptations to remote teaching and how they would be developed during the school term. With this in mind, UFRJ sought to minimize the impact on learning in the face of the emergence of the new education model with the implementation of ETP, offering a curricular advance and training in the new dynamics of remote teaching, as well as ensuring the student's right if it was not possible to return to academic activities during that period. In this way, it would be possible to observe the system's challenges and academic needs in the midst of the new learning methodology.

The ETP lasted from August 24 to November 16, 2020, accounting for a semester of 12 weeks, which is shorter than the usual six weeks. The ETP was made available following a synchronous and asynchronous pedagogical organization. Synchronous activities are characterized by the interaction between the teacher and the students in real-time since everyone takes part in the activities in the virtual environment at the same time. Asynchronous activities, on the other hand, are disconnected in terms of time and space from online interaction, as they are remote activities. However, the teacher-student relationship does not take place in real time, and students can organize these activities according to their availability (^{Antunes; Porto; Queiroz, 2022}).

According to CEG Resolution No. 4/2020, ETP activities should preferably be asynchronous, with classes recorded, respecting the image and voice rights of those who prepared the didactic-pedagogical material. In general, these activities were organized by recorded activities and/or materials made available for study (UFRJ/PR1, 2020).

The Undergraduate Teaching Council (CEG), through Resolution 3/2020, made it exceptionally possible to withdraw from subjects and enrollment justified by the pandemic at any time, since remote teaching activities were optional for the student body. Thus, during the ETP it was not allowed to fail by absences or penalties concerning the impossibility of adhering to subjects or remote activities. In addition, the resumption of remote pedagogical activities after the re-establishment of the regular UFRJ calendar was ensured for students who chose not to carry out activities during the ETP. Students in this situation had their places reserved in the Integrated Academic Management System (IAMS) and, when subjects were offered, they were enrolled by the coordinator, via direct enrollment (UFRJ/PR1, 2020).

Still during the ETP, in July 2020, in order to comply with the curriculum of the courses and their on-site activities such as mandatory internships, the university established guidelines and complementary rules for curricular and extracurricular internships for undergraduate courses during the COVID-19 pandemic period, through CEG Resolution No. 6/2020. This document now authorizes these internships to be carried out inside and outside UFRJ, following safety and biosafety recommendations and guidelines (CEG, 2020).

Through the publication of Resolution No. 9/2020, made available by the CEG, it became possible to transition the ETP to the regular 2020 academic term in remote mode. With this transition, the activities developed in the ETP would be part of the regular semester 2020.1. In addition, for the restart of the school year, some rights were provided for students, among them: no failure for attendance exclusively during remote teaching, enrollment lock with an extended period, and the permanence of the guarantee in the priority of enrollment of the student who did not opt for remote pedagogical activities in the resumption of on-site academic activities at UFRJ (CEG, 2020).

That said, it was established that the 2020 academic term should be held in two periods: the first academic term of the year would be from November 30, 2020, to March 6, 2021, thus comprising 14 weeks, while the second academic term of the year would be offered from March 22, 2021, to June 12, 2021, thus having 12 weeks of activities, with only two weeks of vacation between each period (CEG, 2020). In this way, one of the main characteristics of emergency remote education can be seen: the reduction in the length of teaching periods, when compared to the regular on-site teaching period, characterized by 18 to 19 weeks of activities and three weeks of vacation between periods.

In order to operate the school year in remote mode in 2021, the CEG had some rules, which included the types of remote teaching activities that could be used, such as activities mediated by Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), synchronous and asynchronous, according to technological availability; the provision of content organized on virtual teaching and learning platforms, e-mail, among others; the provision of teaching materials to students, with the appropriate pedagogical guidelines; guidance on reading, projects, research, activities and exercises indicated in the teaching materials; and ICT-mediated assessments, also establishing the cases and conditions that ensured the right to second call assessments (CEG, 2021).

Regarding curricular and extracurricular internships for undergraduate courses, the guidelines of Resolution No. 6/2020 published in the ETP remained. However, Resolution No. 2/2021 allowed academic units to develop internships of up to 30 hours per week during the pandemic on an emergency basis (CEG, 2021).

Given the entire process of change during the COVID-19 pandemic emergency and the implementation of emergency remote teaching, some characteristics of the educational process can be seen, such as the limitations of time, planning, training, and technical support for teaching classes using learning platforms, which is a possible factor in compromising the quality of undergraduate education (^{Gusso et al., 2020}). However, it is necessary to carry out surveys with students to find out if there has in fact been any compromise in the quality of their training. It is therefore understood that, although remote teaching allows for greater autonomy in terms of time management for studies, given the easy availability of slides and reading materials on online platforms without the need to travel to the educational institution and to be frequently present during the classes administered, there are other factors that together imply the student's learning in its entirety, such as the fact that remote classes require greater discipline, commitment, and motivation from the student since the student-teacher and student-coordinator relationship becomes more impaired. In addition, the place of study can influence learning and the numerous external distracting factors can interfere with the student's attention in their study environment (^{Lima, 2020}).

3.2 Hybrid teaching

The federal institution follows its conduct backed by current legislation and values quality teaching for the training of future professionals and researchers. It agrees with Law No. 11.788 of 2008, which defines internships as a "[...] supervised school educational act, developed in the work environment, which aims to prepare students who are attending regular education in higher education institutions for productive work [...]" and, in addition, "[...] aims to learn skills specific to professional activity and to contextualize the curriculum, aiming to develop students for citizen life and work" (^{Brasil, 2008}). Therefore, we can see the importance and necessity of the compulsory curricular internships that many undergraduate courses have for their professional training.

Faced with the new model of teaching offered remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic, several classes at the federal university experienced delays in their training, since, although remote teaching provided progress in theoretical academic studies, the obligation to complete curricular internships prevented them from continuing and completing their degree. Therefore, the suspension of on-site activities had a direct impact on the students' learning time.

Hybrid teaching, according to ^{Pasini, Carvalho, and Almeida (2020)}, is described as a proposal that seeks to integrate the elements of on-site and remote teaching. Therefore, based on this concept, it can be considered that, as of CEG Resolution No. 6, of July 2020, UFRJ began to adopt aspects of hybrid teaching as an exceptional option. In other words, even in the period portrayed as remote teaching, characteristics of on-site teaching are beginning to be introduced.

In addition, the approach taken by UFRJ - hybrid teaching - can improve the interaction between student and teacher, as this reorganization allows for the development of satisfactory theoretical learning in a free and creative way, as students increase their autonomy, collaboration, responsibility, and commitment (^{Silva, 2018}). However, the main negative aspect of this methodology continues to be the compulsory requirement of technological tools (^{Souza; Andrade, 2016}), causing some obstacles in training and learning. In addition to this, there were numerous insecurities on the part of the students concerning on-site activities, including the fear of becoming infected and thus infecting their families, and also of delaying their training if they had to spend a long time on sick leave and were unable to complete the minimum 75% attendance in practical activities set out in CEG Resolution 15/1971.

Throughout the pandemic, UFRJ has adopted a number of measures to overcome some of the challenges, but in difficult and fickle times, the institution has tried as best it can to meet the needs of its students. Higher education could not be sustained in the remote mode for long, as has already been pointed out, as there is a need to carry out compulsory practical activities in order to complete courses. Therefore, the best time for a gradual return to face-to-face activities began to be studied and debated by the spheres responsible for undergraduate courses. Thus, guidelines were made available for the elaboration of the plan for the gradual return of practical teaching activities in undergraduate courses (^{UFRJ, 2021d}, ^2021e).

In October 2021, according to the Rio de Janeiro Epidemiological Bulletin, the lethality rate, along with the mortality rate, fell considerably compared to the same period the previous year. The epidemiological status of the city of Rio de Janeiro had improved. Through this plan and guidelines for a gradual return, the UFRJ Teaching and Graduation Council, through Resolution No. 9, published in October 2021, determined the start of the hybrid teaching modality for all courses during the 2021 academic period. However, it is worth noting that, during the ETP, the courses were developing remote and face-to-face activities, which constitutes hybrid teaching, but it was only after the publication of this resolution that this modality was actually formalized at UFRJ.

The partial return to on-site teaching, called hybrid teaching, would only take place for students who had been vaccinated. This decision was emphasized by the CEG through Resolution 13/2021, which kept the provisions of the aforementioned resolution in force. In addition, some assignments are made for this new period, characterized by hybrid teaching, among them the on-site and remote activities that continued to occur without approval by attendance.

3.3 Return of the on-site classes

Throughout 2020, there were certain orders for the institution to return to its face-to-face activities, such as Ordinance No. 1,038/²⁰²¹, from the Ministry of Education, which provided for "[...] the return to on-site classes and the exceptional use of digital educational resources to complete the workload of pedagogical activities, for the duration of the pandemic situation of the new coronavirus" (^{Brasil, 2021b}). However, through some news and notes, UFRJ stated that it would continue to carry out its activities in the remote modality. This situation lasted until 2021, when the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office (MPF) filed a civil lawsuit demanding the return of on-site classes by October 18, 2021, at federal higher education institutions (^{UFRJ, 2021}).

UFRJ, like other higher education institutions, took a position in favor of this return to the classroom, but respecting the "[...] planning autonomy of each one of them" (UFRJ, 2021). This autonomy was ratified by the Federal Court, which did not accept the MPF's request for a return to the classroom, as it understood that the institution's autonomy should prevail (UFRJ, 2021). However, before the court order, UFRJ presented a counter-proposal for conciliation with the MPF regarding the return to on-site classes (UFRJ, 2021). This counter-proposal included a return to on-site classes for all subjects only at the beginning of the 2022.1 semester, which only occurred in April 2022 (UFRJ, 2021).

In addition, over time, the pandemic has eased, with many establishments reopening thanks to the development, distribution, and application of vaccination against the new coronavirus. As a result, the lethality of the disease decreased, even during peak episodes. In March 2022, although more than 400,000 cases had already been recorded, the mortality rate stood at 18.3 and the case-fatality rate at 0.3% (Center..., 2022), in other words, the latter rate was much lower compared to the same time the previous year, which, in March, stood at 7%, with a similar mortality rate (18.8), but with fewer cases (around 17,000) (Center..., 2021). The main difference between these two moments is how advanced vaccination against COVID-19 was: in March 2021, only 450,000 doses had been applied (Emergency Operations Center, 2021), while in March 2022, vaccination had already reached the mark of more than 14 million doses applied (Center..., 2022).

Considering this context, the Multidisciplinary Working Group for Coping with the COVID-19 Pandemic at UFRJ (GT-Coronavirus) released a technical note that recommended "[...] the resumption of all on-site activities at UFRJ in the first academic term of 2022, understanding that it is necessary to maintain the mandatory use of masks and offer facilities for hand hygiene" (GT-Coronavirus, 2022). With this in mind, on March 20, 2022, the university launched the Guidelines for the full on-site return of UFRJ, a guiding document for carrying out this process. This document reinforced the requirement for proof of vaccination, the mandatory use of masks, and hand hygiene for the on-site return of undergraduate teaching activities (^{UFRJ, 2022a}).

Thus, on March 30, 2022, the CEG published Resolution No. 27, which "Provides for the operating rules of the 2022 academic year to be held in the face-to-face mode". The main rules in question included that: the student could withdraw from enrolling in a subject, with the authorization of the supervising teacher, provided that 60% of the ordinary teaching period had not yet elapsed; exceptionally, the student's approval by a final grade equal to or greater than 5.0 and attendance equal to or greater than 50% of the subject's workload (CEG, 2022). Prior to the pandemic, the minimum attendance required to pass the course was 75% or more of the teaching time (CEG, 1971). In addition, students could previously only withdraw from a course with the authorization of the supervising professor, as long as ¼ of the regular teaching period had not yet elapsed (CEG, 1971).

These flexibilities reveal the university's commitment to offering possibilities that do not hinder student performance in on-site teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it is important to assess the impact of teaching with so much effort, in order to verify the quality of the training of these students who have experienced their training in the midst of a pandemic, with the aim of learning from this unique experience and preparing for new health crises that may arise.

In addition to the recommendations for COVID-19 prevention set out by UFRJ, as mentioned above, the institution has established a testing strategy for the resumption of face-to-face activities. This document consists of a series of instructions for the entire university body, in order to help identify the infection as early as possible, both through self-assessment of common signs and symptoms of COVID-19 and through free testing at the UFRJ Diagnostic Screening Center. It was recommended that symptomatic, pre-symptomatic, and people who had recently had close contact with an infected person be tested and, in case they tested positive, they were advised to remain in isolation for a period of ten days, with a minimum of seven days. There was also the possibility of a new test ten days after the onset of symptoms for those who had tested positive for the disease, in order to control the negative viral load (^{UFRJ, 2022b}).

At the moment, UFRJ continues with its on-site activities, the country continues to see a decrease in the number of deaths and the number of COVID-19 cases (^{Centro..., 2022}). The last technical note until the construction of this study was the suspension of the mandatory use of masks in closed spaces on UFRJ campuses. However, the committee of researchers that advises the rector's office recommends that the university continues to encourage the wearing of masks by its staff.