FMU University Center

In an interview with Rafael Citelli, CTO, FMU University Center, he elucidates on his firsthand experience in the rapid transformation of the education sector and e-learning technologies taking the center stage. He explores the significant shifts and advancements that have taken place along with the challenges and opportunities seized during this digital transformation.

As the chief technology officer, what do you think are the major changes technology has brought about in the education space?

Due to the pandemic, educational institutions needed to adapt quickly to distance learning, and in a way this digital transformation greatly accelerated investments in new DL platforms and education formats, which until recently, in Brazil, was considered low quality.

At FMU it was necessary to invest in cloud structures and systems to support the increase in this access and also to adapt to the practical classes that would require regulatory issues from the Ministry of Education, which would be transmitted from their practical environment to the students who would be at their homes, that is, purchases of several high-quality cameras were necessary to support these transmissions, which occurred in laboratories, kitchens, sports courts, etc.

I believe that all this transformation helped to demystify the precociousness that existed with distance education, showing more and more that in Brazil and in the world, it has been growing and today we are fully prepared for 100% distance learning, or even for hybrid teaching. We are sure that the students' mindset has also changed during this time.

As digital transformation happens, data privacy and security become huge concerns. How do you think education centers can navigate these challenges?

This is an excellent point, because with the digital transformation in this period, it was also necessary to invest in laboratories, but this time virtual, so all the technology is stored on servers, therefore our concern which was face-to-face earlier, for example, theft or the damage to some equipment no longer exists, or does so on a smaller scale, but rather, how will that class be available to students within the day and time they would like?

I believe that all this transformation helped to demystify the precociousness that existed with distance education, showing more and more that in Brazil and in the world, it has been growing and today we are fully prepared for 100% distance learning, or even for hybrid teaching.

This evaluation goes through the availability and high capacity of servers but the concern in having all the necessary protections without having difficulties with locks or slowdowns due to some information security mechanism. At FMU we follow the best market practices for LGPD and Information Security; these actions need to be planned in advance within the budget as we know how high this investment is. We have an information security area that does a whole job with new tools such as ‘zero trust’ (Do not trust anyone and only release what you know), MFA mechanisms (Double Authentication Factor) and capable partners that help us in aspects such as: Management of vulnerabilities, application of patches and keeping us updated and carrying out constant knowledge recycling actions.

What are some of the innovations in the education tech space that are helping create enriching educator and student experiences?

Today we have LMS portals that are fast and integrated with different platforms, ranging from access to the most dynamic classes, with videos and lectures, such as the remote class itself with one of the best audio and video synchronous transmission software.

We have also invested in partnerships for virtual laboratories, currently we have laboratories that allow a great immersion in 3D virtual environments that allow the student to simulate places and perform tasks as if they were in person.

Other benefits with M365's integrated access platforms, that is, students gain an account/email and can access the benefits of this partnership.

We have Google as one of our partners for the secure cloud of our internal services and also always bringing innovative content to FMU.

And now we are working on research fronts to soon benefit from AI as well, where we should already have something implemented, at least on an experimental basis, by the end of this year.

How have your previous experiences best prepared you to cater to your roles and responsibilities as the chief technology officer of FMU University Center?

I had the luck and pleasure of working with great leaders during these more than 20 years in the technology market with education in several institutions here in Brazil and in large education groups at a global level, at each cycle the challenges imposed that seemed giant, helped me gain confidence and thus reach new heights in my career. Like the vast majority, I started early, as an intern and I gradually went up a level, and if I could give you a tip, do this; study, dedicate yourself and follow the path ahead, because this way it will also help you to think that one day you also took this path along with your subordinates, after all, no one is born a CEO, isn't that right?

Do you have any words of advice for your industry peers on navigating the ever-evolving education tech space?

I believe that three pieces of advice are very important. The first, don't want to be bigger than your company's objective, if we are here in an education company, whose mission is to deliver the best quality education and train great professionals, then I would like to be the best to support this mission, never put technology above this goal, but rather, delivering the best experience for our students and teachers.

Second, create or participate in a strong network connection, whether with education professionals or with IT colleagues from other areas, this network will help you with the necessary information, benchmarks so that you can take advantage of the lessons learned and of course, that you can also contribute to this information by sharing your best practices.

Third, never stop specializing and keeping up with world trends, regardless of the area of ​​expertise, we always need to be in tune with the lifelong learning process.