On November 12th, Lab2PT/IN2PAST doctoral student Marília Correia Borges defended his thesis, entitled “Impacts of distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic: Contributions from geographic analysis in rural and transition territories” supervised by Professors Vítor Patrício Rodrigues Ribeiro and António José Bento Gonçalves.

 

The research project aimed to understand how distance learning, brought about by COVID-19, affected learning in the subject of Geography, specifically in the area of ​​Physical Geography. This study aimed to have students reflect on their learning gaps caused by distance learning, and to ensure that if this teaching modality is forced to return in the future, teachers would know the best strategies to adopt to prevent knowledge from not being consolidated. To this end, questionnaires and focus groups were applied to teachers and students, as well as resources and activities related to augmented reality (AR) and new geographic information technologies (GIS).

The study took place in the Alberto Sampaio school cluster located in the municipality of Braga and in the school clusters of the municipalities of Amares and Vieira do Minho. These municipalities were selected in order to make a comparison between an urban municipality (Braga), a transitional municipality (Amares) and a municipality with rural characteristics (Vieira do Minho).

 

Congratulations to Doctor Marília Borges!