The Pro-President for Digital Transformation and Pedagogical Innovation of the Polytechnic of Beja, João Paulo Barros, highlights the benefits of the collaboration of this higher education institution with the FCCN Unit, highlighting the role of updating the connection to the national education and research network, within the scope of the RCTS100* project.
#1 What is the significance and impact of activating the connection of the Polytechnic Institute of Beja (IPBeja) to the national teaching and research network at 100 Gbps?
It is widely recognized that internet connectivity is an extremely important service for the functioning of today's society, becoming even more important in the context of higher education. IPBeja's 100 Gbps connection to the national education and research network is therefore extremely important on two levels: both by contributing to the national network infrastructure and by enabling the more effective and efficient pursuit of all its responsibilities as a public education and research institution.
More specifically, faster internet access is a clear asset for students and the entire academic community. Whether in teaching, research, or institutional management and administration, it allows for better and faster access to the ever-growing diversity of content, including texts, videos, and audio, as well as a quantitative and qualitative increase in collaborative work within and outside the institution. This is essential for distance learning, enabling new teaching and learning practices and crucial for research, which depends on access to a maximum of content and communication between researchers.
#2 What is the importance and impact that the FCCN Unit's digital services and projects have on the daily lives of the IPBeja community?
IPBeja has a long and fruitful collaboration with FCCN, which has yielded several important benefits for the institution. First, it provides quality internet access. And second, it provides access to a range of IT services and applications for the entire school community. This has taken on particular importance during the recent pandemic, enabling higher quality teaching practices and all collaborative work, including research activities. We highlight the eduroam network, the Colibri/Zoom service, the indexing of IPBeja's scientific repository, and student and faculty access to publications from scientific publishers through online knowledge library (b-on.pt).
#3 Is there anything you would like to add?
It is also important to highlight the importance of an entity such as FCCN, which offers, facilitates and promotes the creation, identification, updating and maintenance of a multitude of digital services for all higher education institutions, thus contributing to greater inter-institutional collaboration and improved quality in national teaching and research.
* Project co-financed by the Operational Technical Assistance Program, Portugal 2020 and the European Union, through the European Regional Development Fund.
