Distance learning in Higher Education scenario: Expansion and quality indicators

Abstract

The expansion of Higher Education in Brazil has culminated with the creation of Universidade Aberta do Brasil (UAB), a program that places itself as a priority in government policies, for the inclusion of people who had no access to higher education. This Project has been generating since the 1980s, and was created in 2006 as a consortium system, in which public universities and private teaching institutions participate, credentialed by The Ministry of Education (MEC – Ministério da Educação). The growing offer in Distance Courses, offered by the credentialed universities, institutionalized the Distance Learning in Brazil. Partnerships between institutions that offer the courses and the municipalities, responsible for the maintenance of support structures that attend the students, constitute an educational model that is being established in the country. This work analyses the Distance Learning expansion process in the Brazilian Higher Education, and discusses the implications of such expansionist movement in the Brazilian educational context, based on the guidelines proposed in government documents regarding the quality  references for Distance Learning.

Key words: educational policy, distance learning, teaching quality, higher education.