Emergency remote teaching at EWB-UFx during coronavirus pandemic: coping with (di)stress

As coronavirus pandemic has spread all over the world, schools and universities needed to reinvent themselves so that their students could be remotely assisted. In this context, this paper aims to present and detail the experiences of English without Borders Program at the Federal University of XXX with Remote Teaching, highlighting the actions related to the planning sessions, as well as the difficulties teachers and coordinators faced and the adjustments that were necessary. The analysis was carried out using the case study methodology, with teachers’ feedback collected from pedagogical meetings and questionnaires sent by e-mail. The remote teaching modality was contrasted with e-learning, and among the conclusions presented, it was evidenced that the initial difficulties with the promotion of interactions among students were reduced when the feeling of community identity built during the classes was perceived. The teacher training process developed to assist scholarship holders in this new educational scenario was also endorsed as a differential of the program, with the indication that sharing experiences with remote education is necessary so that educators can be prepared for a future surrounded for uncertainties.


Introduction
In 2020, we faced a 'to be or not to be' dilemma, and beyond any philosophical reflections upon life and society, we found ourselves forced to reinvent ourselves, take care of families, and begin to fight for survival. Recalling our experiences learning about Maslow's hierarchy of needs in our undergraduate psychology classes, we were finally able to understand the importance of the lower level of the pyramid: the physiological needs. It suddenly became clear to us that air that we breathe, which we so often take for granted, now needed to be our primary focus and concern. Coronavirus, in many ways, took away the most important thing in our lives: safe air. As a consequence, we have been forced to start looking for protection. The isolation measures were (and still are) vital, if we are to avoid high levels of infection and the possibility of the healthcare system being overwhelmed with a high demand for hospital beds and respiratory equipment.
Given this context, many people have stopped working in order to save as many as possible lives.
Schools and universities were the first to stop their activities due to the large numbers of people who regularly gather together in enclosed environments. In public universities, it is important to note that while inperson classes were canceled, professors continued to work in different areas, such as research, online meetings, and online activities for students and the external community. Many institutions quickly implemented remote teaching. Bearing in mind the educational scenarios that were implemented due to COVID19, this paper aims to present some considerations on the differences between on-line learning and remote teaching, as well as present a case study on the remote teaching which was implemented at the Language without Borders Program (EWB) at the Federal University of XXX (UFx).
In particular, this paper will depict how the program's planning sessions took place, the activities undertaken, the evaluation process, the difficulties faced by students, teachers and coordinators and how each new course was prepared based on the previous experiences.
Including a case study (CROWE at al., 2011) was important for this paper, since it allowed us to conduct an in-depth qualitative and quantitative analysis of the remote teaching practices in the EWB-UFx program. By doing so, we were able to take into consideration the viewpoints of the teachers and coordinators who were totally immersed in the process.  According to Arruda (2020), public universities have been cautious about resuming classes due to the nostudent-left-behind policy, and this is why remote teaching has not been implemented at UFx so far,. In July, a committee was created, made up of professors, pro-rectors and students, with the goal of preparing a complete plan to implement remote teaching at the beginning of October. There is as of yet no consensus on this matter within the academic community, which remains reluctant to resume classes without first making sure that all students will be able to attend classes virtually and whether they will face a lack access to electronic devices and internet connections or other issues related to infrastructure and emotional distress.
The prospect of remote teaching also haunts professors who fear that online teaching will ultimately replace in-person classes after this experience. We believe this fear may reflect a misunderstanding of the principles behind remote and online teaching. As Hodges at al (2020) states, emergency remote teaching (ERT) is a temporary shift of instructional delivery to an alternate delivery mode due to crisis circumstances. It involves the use of fully remote teaching solutions for instruction or education that would otherwise be delivered face-to-face or as blended or hybrid courses and that will return to that format once the crisis or emergency has abated (HODGES AT AL, 2020, n/p).
Once the crisis is over and a vaccine is readily available, there would be no reason to continue working and teaching remotely. This shift towards remote teaching is a temporary adaptation of the courses that would normally be taught in a traditional in-person setting, but which needed to be altered due to the circumstances of the moment. We are not referring to online learning, which has a totally different structure and well-established procedures.
It also needs to be highlighted that the entire concept of online learning greatly differs from ERT, since the former has a specific format and requires strategic planning. As Hodges at al (2020)  education or face-to-face one, but the need to discuss an unprecedented context in which information is updated daily and, as we said, it is not possible to make projections about the return of face-to-face classes (ARRUDA, 2020, p. 268).
Even if the widespread use of ERT is implemented, public universities must prepare contingency plans in order to help the students who will be unable to attend online classes due to a lack of access to learning devices and internet connection. It is vital that students' interests be preserved and all measures that help students gain access to the ERT classes be implemented. Through this analysis, we discovered that the number of country-wide closures decreased 22% from May to June, but only 7% from June to July, as these two last maps are quite similar. It is possible to infer that we are far from "normalcy", and almost 61% of students enrolled in any level of education have been affected worldwide. It is time to try to narrow the distance between universities and their student populations, so that they may reopen not just spaces in which knowledge is exchanged but also a space in which professors can listen to and interact with their students.
Taking into consideration the fact that the discussions on re-opening have been long and exhausting, the English without Borders program at UFx has tried to get closer to its students, offering some support with language learning and promoting interaction in a moment in which social distancing remains a strict rule. In light of the needs of the moment, it is vital to collect data about students' experiences and share these with the academic community in order to help others face the same problems going forward, given that our future concerning similar pandemics is far from certain. In listing these actions, it may appear as though everything went as planned, without any problems or setbacks. In the next section, however, we will describe the need for adjustments during the program's adaptation to this new teaching modality.

Overcoming difficulties and paving the way for a new horizon
For the first time, the EWB team worked totally from a distance. This became our first challenge, since we were used to having weekly face-to-face meetings where we not only addressed administrative and pedagogical affairs, but which also served as moments for socialization and teambuilding. In the meetings, we decided to divide the ten EWB-UFx teachers into pairs, and each pair planned lessons, submitted them for evaluation by the coordinator, made the necessary adjustments, and finally, conducted the classes.
Classes were publicized on our social media accounts, and e-mails were sent to former students telling them about the classes in this new format.
From April to July, we faced many different situations, and re-planning was necessary in order to obtain our desired results. In order to understand the shifts in the processes which were carried out by the EWB group, we divided our analysis into four different phases, which will be known as phases A, B, C and D.
In Initially, we imagined that slow internet speed would be a problem that only students would face. Surprisingly, however, it was not just the students, but also the teachers who encountered difficulties in maintaining a stable internet connection for the duration of the class.
In order to minimize these problems, each one of the two teachers needed to have a second device with the PowerPoint presentation ready to be shown, so that their co-teacher would be able to take over the class in case the first teacher's connection wasn't good enough We expected to have about 15 students in each class, but it was common to have just a few students or even no students in some of these initial classes. By analyzing each case, we were able to identify some recurring situations. Using Instagram, we conducted a series of surveys to identify days, times and topics for classes that students would be more interested in, and this information helped us make the necessary adjustments. We then observed that there were less students attending the basic classes than the other class levels. By talking to some of the students and teachers, we concluded that the stressfulness of the quarantine was more intense for the basic students when taking part in the classes. Beginner students not only had to cope with the difficulties of the pandemic, but also the intimidating idea of interacting in a new language via an online platform and the fear of being vulnerable in an environment where they were not comfortable.
By the end of May, at the beginning of phase B, we identified other problems and created new strategies. We realized that we were attempting to apply face-to-face educational practices in an online scenario, which made us rethink the types of activities, interactions, and classes we were offering our students. Even though we were aware of the differences between e-learning and ERT, it was only when the classes began that EWB teachers were truly able to appreciate how different they are. These differences are highlighted by Gags et al. (2020), who reported some of the problems that could arise in ERT scenarios, due to limited capacity for training, minimal, if any, access to appropriate technological resources for instructors and teaching assistants, no access to campus facilities, increased fully online workload with limited personal learning spaces, and the emotional and financial trauma of this pandemic (GAGS et al.., 2020, p. 381) Our class materials initially consisted of a PowerPoint presentation that was shared with the students during the classes, as well as downloadable handouts in which students could answer questions during the class. After some weeks of classes, the lack of proper interaction became clear. It was necessary to include more online resources and activities in order to diversify the class and make it more interesting and interactive. We decided to include more sites and apps as part of the classes, and increased the amount of group work. Students responded well to the changes and participated more frequently in the proposed activities.
The teachers also noticed that students' cameras and audios were turned off for most of the class, which made interacting more difficult. In our first attempts we tried to make students more comfortable and respected their timing when it came to oral participation. We then decided to have a slightly more aggressive approach, and started to kindly ask students to turn on the cameras when they were talking. Teachers also called silent students by their names and asked for their opinions. As a result, some students started to participate more, which then gave other students the confidence to do the same. By sharing opinions and showing their faces more frequently, each class gradually formed a group identity. Students began to ask their classmates to participate, and even started to ask them to turn cameras on. The level of familiarity grew, and some groups even developed internal games and jokes, like creating funny backgrounds based on memes that would then be used in class. Asynchronous activities were also assigned in some groups, in order to improve interaction with the teacher. Small written projects were also assigned, which students had to email to the teachers in order to receive corrections and feedback.
In the third month, phase C, the teachers reported low student attendance during classes as being the program's primary weak point. The EWB-UFx http://online.unisc.br/seer/index.php/signo to achieve this, we changed the nature of the program's activities and began using the academic credit system to register students in 16-hour courses, in which students with 75% attendance received a certificate upon completion of the course. Students seemed to be pleased with this new format, since all 30 spots were occupied in each of the five class groups. These classes were ministered in July, the last month of this study, and we may say it was a success, based on the good feedback from the students and their high levels of participation, as is shown in phase D.
Phase D was characterized by our first major piece of feedback, in which we were able to analyze our results and adopt new directions after the two-week break between classes. Since a lack of student participation continued to be a problem in the classes, teachers dove into further researching and analyzing the virtual learning environment. They then discovered a way to have students work in small groups or pairs, by creating separate "rooms" within the virtual classroom. By doing so, students were able to migrate to these rooms and then return to the original space once they had finished their partner or group work.
Teachers were able to monitor these groups by visiting these separate spaces and giving feedback. Students reported that by working in small groups, they gained even more familiarity with one another, further motivating even more students to turn on their cameras within their small group settings.
Student interactions continued to improve due to the large number of students who decided to turn their cameras on, as they felt increasingly comfortable and confident with each other. Students wanted to feel as if they were part of a group dynamic, and since they had already spent some time together individually, they started to participate more in the large group setting.
Teachers observed that students began talking more freely with one another, even making plans to sign up for the same courses in order to continue together as a group. Harrison and Thomas (2009) discuss how identities in online communities are formed, and state that "individual members will construct their own personal identity through their profiles and the community as a whole will construct a cultural identity through the linguistic codes". Adapting this idea to the reality faced by the EWB teams, we may say that besides the linguistic enhancement provided by the classes, other important aspects were also present, such as the connections which students established based on the exchanges of opinions and jokes in all of the classes. In the pedagogical meetings, it was clear how different each community was from each other in terms of how noisy they were, the level of openness and seriousness, the amount of inside jokes, and the topics that were always brought up during discussions.
The differences between ERT and E-learning were clearly visible in our meetings. We all had the feeling that we could strengthen our bonds with our students, who were in need of educational and emotional help, yet we were not familiar with the available tools and resource. Indeed, many of the most successful adjustments that we discussed in our replanning sessions were due to the fact we were not able to anticipate all of the problems. E-learning is a structured educational system, well-planned and implemented on a solid basis. Emergency Remote Teaching, on the other hand, has been a learning process for all the actors involved in the process, since we did not have enough planning time nor the institutional support for guidance or proper training. But this lack of support was not due to negligence by the university. On contrary, UFx tried to help us with some online courses and providing the Teams platform for our use, but a program-specific strategic plan was vital to our courses' eventual success.
More classes will be open for enrollment, and the same planning and execution process will be used.
Teachers will plan classes in pairs, and the coordinators will analyze their proposals. The program leadership will receive and offer feedback in every weekly pedagogical meeting, and changes will continue to happen according to the observations. For the next set of groups, an evaluation process will be implemented, with two main objectives: to get more accurate feedback on the learning process, and to prevent students from earning a certificate if they do not actively attend and participate in the classes. There are people who enroll in the courses, but do not turn on

EWB-UFx experience: lessons learned and open possibilities
In the previous section, we described the EWB courses at the Federal University of XXX, pointing out the difficulties, solutions and improvements during the implementation of an emergency remote teaching (ERT) format. We will now compare the impressions shared by the teachers who dealt with the digital platform logistics, their students and this new teaching modality. The coordinators sent a short questionnaire to be answered by the program's ten teachers, which all of them answered. In this questionnaire, each teacher chose a fictitious name and was asked to describe their experiences teaching English prior the pandemic; the difficulties that they faced during the time they had to teach remotely; how they coped with the students' interactions; the feedback they got in class; and the lessons that they learned.
Only one out of the ten teachers had taught inperson classes before teaching at EWB, which made the program an important part of the teachers' training.
Their hands-on experiences and the discussions afterwards helped them compare theory with practice.
One of the teachers reported some previous experience with private classes, and another reported having participated in a national teaching program (PIBID), in which language students from the university work in pairs as co-teachers in a public school and were supervised by another teacher from the institution.
The main difficulties that the teachers reported were related to the internet quality and the initial problems in trying to ensure students' participation in the class. One of the teachers, Joanne, expressed her anxiety with the "unpredictability of the internet connection", since she never knew when it would work properly. Another teacher, Isabel, had the same opinion and admitted that she is not very good with technology, which tends to make her feel a bit stressed.
For EWB teacher Heloísa, dealing with the internet connection was definitely her biggest difficulty. Another teacher, Joana, also reported this problem, stating that the only element of the class which her students described as negative was "related to connection issues or platform malfunctions" and not to the content of the class.
When it came to analyzing the student interactions during their classes, all of the teachers mentioned that students' unwillingness to participate was their main difficulty. They were so used to teaching in face-to-face environments that dealing with students who turned their cameras off was initially a bit frustrating. Later on, however, they reported that as the students began to identify more with the class's group dynamic, they started to get more comfortable showing their faces, and their interactions improved Another difficulty, or rather a challenge, is that we cannot see students' reactions (body language, face expressions etc.). Even when they turn their cameras on, we can see a small image of them. In this situation we cannot really see how they are responding to the activities. For instance, in a more basic class, by looking at students' facial expressions, we can see if they are understanding what we are saying and, based on that, rephrase what we said or use another strategy to make sure students understand. To deal with that, formative assessment becomes even more important; we must invest on this kind of assessment and look for ways to see how students respond to the activities, exploring multimodality and using the many resources available online (JOANNE) Another problem that the teachers reported and discussed in our pedagogical meetings was related to getting feedback from students. Students' participation and consequent feedback was essential in the planning sessions, given that the classes were prepared based on students' needs. EWB teacher João Lucas believed that the initial difficulties in promoting student interactions were partially due to the lack of familiarization with the online platform. Once the teachers mastered the tools offered by Microsoft Teams, they were able to achieve better, though it did Working in pairs lowered teachers' anxiety, since they never knew how the internet quality would be during their classes. Joanne admitted that she felt relieved, knowing that "working in pairs with other teachers is a strategy that helps, given that one teacher is there to continue the class in case the other is unable to do it" (JOANNE). During the weekly meetings, teachers and coordinators noticed that it is also common for teachers to struggle with an unclear video stream or difficulties with opening the microphone.
Frozen screens are also recurrent problems, as well as audios that cut out when a person is speaking. Though these kinds of things continue to happen, they do not seem to bother the teachers anymore because they know that their colleagues will be there to continue the class in case of a problem. This is still a new challenge for them: the classes need to be very well planned and discussed, because if one teacher has a bad internet connection, he/she needs to trust that their co-teacher will be prepared to finish the class.
Teachers emphasized that the lack of interaction among students was one of the biggest challenges in As it has been stated before, a feeling of belonging among students can clearly be observed, as they appear to have developed a strong community identity.
It is interesting to note that the teachers themselves participated in the creation of these community dynamics. One EWB teacher, João Lucas, included himself in the bonds that were strengthened during his class.
We can notice that they [students] are trying their best and willing to make the most out of these opportunities. Throughout the four months of remote classes we had some students that came to almost every class, so we can see that there is a bond arising between us, even though the national environment is a little troublesome for several individuals (JOÃO LUCAS).
Even knowing that this is a temporary situation, in which classes were remodeled to suit students' needs, the teachers recognized it as an important moment to improve their teaching skills, especially because the future is uncertain and it is important to be prepared for similar scenarios. EWB teacher Isabel summarized this feeling by stating that she knows she can apply what she learned in ERT "to any class, even in regular conditions, because students seem to get genuinely interested in learning when we use multiple resources in our classes". Joana was also aware of the new possibilities that ERT brought when she mentioned that Online classes take away a lot of resources, but also give us new ones. The main lesson learned is that we can always do a good job as long as we are willing to learn and adapt to new teaching scenarios. After the first moments of adaptation, I see that I can develop my classes better and better (JOANA).
The teachers of the EWB-UFx program affirmed that in this new way of teaching, the use of different resources is vital, and they must continually seek out new applications and materials that may be useful. Everybody wants to go back to their "normal" lives, but the truth is that we do not know what this "normality" will look like in the coming months or years. With this in mind, it is important to take advantage of every opportunity to learn how to deal with these particular challenges and situations, in order to minimize the damage within our educational context and communities.

Conclusions
The global outbreak of COVID-19 was responsible for many changes in our routines, not just concerning safety measures and hygienic protocols, but for everybody who has needed to adapt to being in indefinite confinement. In terms of the educational field, many adjustments have been necessary. Nobody ever imagined that schools and universities all over the world would be closed for so long, and despite the risk for some students of being unable to participate in online learning, ERT had to be implemented or at least taken into consideration, in attempts to avoid even worse damages.
The long-term effects of this pandemic are still uncertain, and systematic study must be carried out, especially since successful remote classes can take longer to prepare and achieve than what might have been imagined so far. The academic community (students, faculty and staff) must adapt to this new teaching mode as swiftly as possible, and this is why the English without Borders Program from the Federal University of XXX has been implementing ERT since April 2020.
All of the difficulties that the EWB-UFx currently faces and that were presented in this paper show us how important it is to learn to adapt to unfamiliar situations and to be open to using new tools and strategies. Thus, without a shadow of a doubt, we conclude that while we do still have a lot to learn, our experiences may be able to help other professors and researchers who are facing the same problems and are in need of proven solutions. This subject needs our attention urgently, considering that a remote teaching format is neither a replacement for face-to-face classes nor an application of E-learning solutions.