In March 2020, facing the increase in Covid-19 cases in Brazil, especially in São Paulo, and the World Health Organization’s confirmation of a global epidemic, FGV Sao Paulo Law School suspended Undergraduate and Stricto Sensu Graduation classes between March 16th and 21st, and Lato Sensu Graduation classes from March 13th to 28th.
During this period, professors went through training to adjust their courses and teaching methodologies to the virtual environment, in order to reduce contamination risks in the academic community.
At the beginning of April, all FGV Sao Paulo Law School was operating digitally, with synchronous classes on Zoom, following the same academic calendar defined for the school year. Similarly, the rest of the school’s activities – research, events, selection processes – were all moved to the virtual environment.
Over the following months, different changes were made, so that students could have the same teaching excellence they experienced in the classroom, by improving the techniques used and including lessons learned during the first months of online teaching.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, FGV Sao Paulo Law School has hosted a series of events to discuss the impact of the crisis on Law and Law teaching. See below some of the school’s initiatives during the pandemic.
Guide for online participatory teaching: recommendations for the current context
At the end of 2020 first school semester, the Center for Teaching and Research on Innovation (CEPI) created the “Guide for online participatory teaching: recommendations for the current context”. It contains guidelines for online teaching based on FGV Sao Paulo Law School’s experience in the previous months. The guide’s goal is to help and encourage professors to develop new learning possibilities, considering the particularities of the current context and relevant pedagogical questions.
It contains guidelines related to three essential aspects for developing course programs, their main challenges, and how to face them. It also provides examples of dynamics for synchronous meetings, free technological tools, asynchronous activities, and assessment formats, which can contribute to developing participatory and innovative legal education, now and in the future.
The document is a public good made by FGV Sao Paulo Law School, and can be accessed by professors and educational institutions all over the country.
Short term course: Participatory teaching on online platforms
Offered by FGV LAW, the “Participatory teaching on online platforms” course aims to provide a public good for legal education, spreading the reflection on teaching methods and techniques and building different approaches for legal disciplines in virtual environments, not only at FGV São Paulo Law School, but also at other legal education institutions in the country.
The course focuses on participatory forms of teaching in online platforms, that is, teaching proposals and learning processes that assume the participation of students as leading actors in building knowledge developed inside and outside the classroom.
The goal is to foster the improvement of teacher training in the legal area, and create a network professors engaged in changing their pedagogical practice.
Free disciplines in the Academic Master’s and PhD programs
Due to the crisis and pandemic scenario, FGV Sao Paulo Law School decided to offer free vacancies for some of the courses of the Academic Master's and PhD Programs in Law and Development to the external audience, to expand access to knowledge and reflection on the challenges of Law in contemporary society.
Courses started in the second semester of 2020 and the first semester of 2021.
Events about online teaching
In the last few months, FGV Sao Paulo Law School hosted a series of online events to discuss teaching during the pandemic crisis.
Check the events below and watch the videos:
Leadership and innovation in Law: the rise of legal innovation leaders in a changing sector (26/10)
Challenges of remote participatory teaching – being a hybrid education teacher in Covid times: pedagogical and psychological challenges
Online participatory legal education: what we learned and what is to come
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fVEn3LOIBU
Series Dialogues about online participatory teaching
- Negotiation and mediation: how to reflect and develop skills in the virtual environment?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LieRLLG11L8
- What are we doing in online education? Project-based and multidisciplinary learning
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyBQICpHVaM
- Public law, innovation, and technology: challenges inside and outside the online classroom
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8NWjB0h-xQ
- Clinic attendance and extension projects: what has changed?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKwtBDsv_Zs&t=34s
Education: Rebuilding paths, learning from adversity
Series Law and the Coronavirus crisis – The contribution of the legal system to fight the pandemic and overcome its economic and social effects
Organized by FGV Sao Paulo Law School in partnership with FGV Rio de Janeiro Law School, the series “Law and the Coronavirus Crisis - The contribution of the legal system to fight the pandemic and overcome its economic and social effects” was designed to discuss legal issues related to the Covid-19 pandemic. The series aims to collaborate with the debate on the current situation, marked by the coronavirus crisis, especially from a legal point of view. Divided in two blocks – emergency and economic recovery –, the project sought to hold weekly debates with guest experts on the subject, including teachers from both schools and external guests.
