Abstract: The pandemic caused by COVID-19 forced the shutdown and/or partial or total paralysis of various sectors of society, including schools and universities which had to take measures to ensure the school calendar, so it was necessary to take actions to limit crowding and social distance. With the impediment of face-to-face activities, in general the educational institutions, and here we highlight in this research the Federal Institute of Education, Science, and Technology of Rio Grande do Norte – IFRN, adopted the Emergency Remote Learning (ERL) so that students and teachers remained connected to the teaching and learning process while maintaining social distance. With this new teaching format, some challenges have arisen and, therefore, we sought, through a field research: analyzing the main challenges faced by teachers and students of the Parnamirim/IFRN campus to continue with the academic activities through the ERL in the period of the COVID-19 pandemic. The subjects researched were teachers and students of Mechatronics, Computer Networks, Technology in Internet Systems, and Degree in Pedagogical Training of Teachers for Vocational and Technological Education courses, and the instrument for data collection was a survey applied through Google Forms. The results of the research pointed to low student interaction, lack of motivation, lack of device, lack of focus and concentration, connection problems, housework, distance, difficulty to follow the classes, lack of practical classes, among other problems. Such results show the fragility of the implementation of the ERL at the educational institution addressed in the research, where students said they feel unmotivated and impaired in relation to learning, especially with regard to practical classes. Therefore, we conclude that the challenges experienced by teachers and students of the IFRN, Parnamirim campus in relation to the ERL were varied and from different levels. Our contribution is directed to call the attention of the competent authorities and make them reflect on the “gaps” that were generated in the teaching and learning process and, in view of that, to seek strategies to reverse or minimize such “gaps” that can be overcome or enhanced with further developments.

Keywords: Social distancing; Paralysis; Covid-19; Educational Challenges.