Perception from the professors' point of view in the remote teaching of Software Testing using active methodologies during the Covid-19 pandemic

This Research Full Paper presents an analysis of the perception of research professors of Software Engineering on the use and difficulties in the context of developing classrooms with teaching strategies using active methodologies remotely. In recent years, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, professors have been facing several challenges to keep students engaged, motivated and learning. The active teaching methodologies that have been collaborating in recent years in the teaching and learning process of students, needed to adapt to the remote teaching class scenario that was implemented in several universities. This research measured the point of view of four professors, who are also researchers in computing education, about how their classes behaved in the last two years of the Software Testing subject in a graduate program at a Brazilian federal university. So that computing students have a way to obtain knowledge in a more practical way so that there is a decrease in the difficulty of students adapting to the job market. Professors are increasingly adopting active methodologies, group work and practical teaching approaches in order for students to acquire skills that will be decisive for their professional future. In view of the existing pandemic scenario and the need to adapt teaching plans for remote teaching, this paper sought to identify the perceptions that professors had, whether in the difficulties of adapting activities, adapting teaching plans to difficulties in keeping students attentive and motivated in the content that was being passed on. The objective of this work is to identify and discuss professors' perceptions about the use of active teaching methodologies using remote teaching in a software testing subject of a graduate class at a Brazilian federal university. It was also analyzed how the professors dealt with the issue of student motivation and engagement at that time. An analysis of the teaching plan of the software testing subject of the last two years of the graduate program in computing at a Brazilian federal university was carried out and each of the methodologies with the perception of the professors who participated in these subjects. The collection of these data was carried out by means of an interview with the four professors, the feedback from the students of the classes on each of the adopted methodologies was also analyzed and a triangulation of the data obtained was performed. The results indicate that there were great difficulties in adapting active methodologies from the point of view of the professors, however most of these challenges were overcome in the their views. It was also pointed out that certain methodologies and practices work better if the learning is done in an evolutionary way and that takes into account the students' previous knowledge about contents, tools and practices that the professors want to use. Thus, this paper aims to present an overview of professors' perspectives on the teaching of a computing subject that needs practical approaches using active methodologies in an emergency situation of remote teaching.

I. Introduction

The situation that occurred due to the Covid-19 pandemic, in contrast to the need for the academic training of computer professionals continue to be able to the job market, became a determining factor for academic activities to continue even in the middle of the pandemic period. This reality required several adaptations to the teaching environment, especially for those subjects that require students to acquire more practical academic skills [1][2].