e-Campus: concept and design of a virtual campus to support Distance Learning in a Polytechnic Institute

The decision to conceive, design, develop and implement a virtual campus in a Higher Education Institution (HEI) stem from the desire to open up and share our training offer with a wider public, while at the same time responding to national and international demands. The team of the Distance Learning axis of the #eCapacitar project designed and developed the proposal of this virtual campus, called e-Campus. It was conceived and designed in the light of the Pedagogical Model for Distance Learning, also designed by the same team. In order to familiarise the teaching staff with good teaching practices (face-to-face, online and hybrid) in aspects such as learning environments, pedagogical planning or assessment, the development of this virtual campus was based on the reports prepared by the Portuguese National Agency for Assessment and Accreditation of Higher Education (A3ES). The e-Campus will integrate different areas that will allow distance students to have access to all the essential features for an effective and successful learning and monitoring of the courses. This paper presents the stages of development of this virtual campus, explaining all the steps taken to implement it, all the areas that make it up, as well as the future plans for its continuous development and improvement.