EPT Digital: protótipo de aplicativo para ambientação de professores do Instituto Federal do Piauí

Abstract

In recent years, the expansion of courses in the area of Professional and Technological Education (EPT) has brought, in addition to positive points, several challenges to be overcome. In the scenario of Federal Institutes, in addition to training in the area and the necessary qualifications, teachers also need to show expertise in both their area of study and the EPT legislation. In this context, it was decided to use the convenience and accessibility of current technology as a way to get around the aforementioned adversities. Thus, this research has sought to answer the following question: what do the teachers at the Instituto Federal do Piauí (IFPI) – Campus Parnaíba know about the legal documents that govern the organization and the functioning of the Federal Institutes? To answer this leading question, the following general objective was defined: to investigate what the IFPI teachers know about the legal documents that govern the organization and functioning of Federal Institutes; and specific objectives: a) to analyze the theory of EPT that support the legal regulations by which Federal Institutes are currently governed; b) to investigate how much of this content teachers actually had knowledge on; c) to propose a prototype application to facilitate teachers' access to this content, in order to mitigate the possible disparity between what they were expected to know and what they actually knew. In order to achieve these objectives, an exploratory field research was conducted to outline the theoretical delimitations, in addition to seeking support in researches on the creation of apps for educational purposes to gerenate the product. The field occurred in April and May, 2021, through the application of semi-structured questionnaires to the target audience in order to validate the research hypothesis and also to collect the necessary data to guide the product development. The construction of the product occurred in four stages: requirements gathering, modeling, implementation, and testing. For the sample, we selected professionals who are part of the permanent teaching staff in Campus Parnaíba, excluding those who were already involved in the research, for a total of 29 participants. The evaluation was done with the target audience by using another semi structured questionnaire. The results of the research corroborate the initial hypothesis, indicating the lack of in-depth knowledge of a large part of the EPT teachers regarding its legal functioning. It was also verified, among the many possible solutions, the viability of the mobile application model for the intended purposes. After the development and application of the product with the target audience, the analysis done through questionnaires showed an overall positive evaluation, also indicating the main improvements to be implemented in future iterations