Former professor at USP. Academic Dean of the Faculty Sumaré-SP and Advisor to t he Ministry of Education to evaluate distance courses Research on distance learn ing in higher education in Brazil made in 2002 and published in SOARES, Maria Su sana A. (Org.) Higher education in Brazil. Brasília CAPES - UNESCO, 2002. Pages: 251-274. How is an evolving area, the data today are a bit outdated. Introduction accredited institutions and courses distance higher forms of organi zation of the Distance Education Network Distance Education Courses at top level partnership leading institutions of higher education in EAD Analysis of Higher Distance Education now Introduction to distance higher education is experiencing a period of great chan ge. The advancement of the Internet is facilitating access to online courses, un dergraduate and postgraduate studies, mainly of expertise. LDB Law of Directives and Bases of Education (1996), especially Articles 80 and 87, recognizes distan ce education and from there to enhance the courses at various levels. Until then the courses were sporadic and focused more on its supplementary nature (telecou rse) and only the University of Brasilia had been offering some of specializatio n and extension courses by correspondence. The first undergraduate distance of E ducation was created in the 4th grade she first Federal University of Mato Gross o, on an experimental basis since 1995 for in-service teachers of public schools and municipal levels. Distance education has been identified at first with teac hing by correspondence, because it was based on texts and exercises carried by m ail. The second generation of distance education at the university began in the 80s, with the use of television and video cassette to the telecourse and vocatio nal trainers of students in elementary and middle school. The third phase of wha t promises to be a revolution in Brazilian education began in the late 90s. Five years ago, only 200 000 people in the country studied by the method of distance education. Today , with the Internet, are about 1.2 million students. Since 1998, there is an increasing involvement of institutions of higher educati on with distance education courses. Requests for authorization to the Ministry o f Education were in their great majority, 80% for undergraduate teacher training , mainly of Higher Education and Normal. The current elementary school teachers are the public primary target of these courses, as they are affected by Article 87, § 4, the LDB, which states that by the end of the Decade of Education, ie 20 06, will only be admitted "qualified teachers in higher education or formed by i n-service training." It is estimated that this legal requirement has driven a de mand point of approximately 700 000 new jobs. Moreover, according to studies of the Center for Applied Information Technology at Fundação Getulio Vargas, it is estimated that Brazil has around 40 000 students enrolled in undergraduate cours es at a distance, among them, at least 39 000 training courses for participating teachers. These figures include undergraduate courses, Postgraduate (mainly Spe cialization) and Extension. 1. Accredited institutions and higher education courses approved by the Ministry of Educação1 [1] the distance Universidade Estadual do Norte Fluminense. Degree in Biological Sciences (CEDERJ ) Fluminense Federal University: Degree in Mathematics (CEDERJ) Federal Universi ty of Pará: Bachelor's Degree in Mathematics, Federal University of Mato Grosso: Basic Education: 1 to 4 series, Full Degree. Federal University of Parana: Unde rgraduate Education, undergraduate full, with the qualifications of the First Ye ars of Teaching Elementary Education and Teaching Early Childhood Education. Uni versity Education. the State of Santa Catarina: Degree in full 1 [1] Survey conducted in July 2002 at the MEC site: www.mec.gov.br Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul: Pedagogy, full undergraduate major in Teacher Education for the early years of elementary school; Postgraduate broadly - Guiding teaching in distance education. Faculty of Business Administration fr om Brasilia: Bachelor of General Administration. Federal University of Espirito Santo: Degree in Education in the early grades of elementary school. Maranhão St ate University: Licentiate in Teaching early grades of elementary school Pontifi cal Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul - Chemical Engineering.Universidad e Federal de Ouro Preto: Degree in Basic Education - Early Years. St. Louis Coll ege of Education, in Jaboticabal - Post-graduate courses in: Curriculum, Teachin g Methodology: Portuguese Language, Learning Math, Learning in Geography; Psycho -Pedagogy. Universidade Braz Cubas: Specialization in Civil and Criminal Law. The list of accredited institutions and courses approved for offering higher edu cation courses at a distance is in www.mec.gov.br. A growing number of undergrad uate and broadly the distance sent to the MEC for approval. Among them seem impo rtant Pathways Project, Special Course in Undergraduate Education sponsored by t he Education Secretariat of Minas Gerais with 18 institutions of higher educatio n for teacher education in state services. The University of Brasilia is also st arting an undergraduate course at a distance of Education for Teachers in office at the beginning of Schooling, in cooperation with the Secretariat of Education of the Federal District. The Institute IUVB a consortium of ten private univers ities in Brazil - is asking for authorization to offer five undergraduate course s at a distance in the humanities. The Unisul - Santa Catarina - is calling for undergraduate courses and specialization, as well as UNOPAR of Londrina, the fac int of Curitiba, Federal University of Alagoas, Bahia UNOESC, among others. 2. Organizational forms of Distance Education In institutional terms, the provision of higher education courses at a distance could be classified into the following three major trends: • isolated institutio ns - universities and colleges are colleges that are already working in educatio n in attendance and now offer distance learning courses. Generally start with ex tension courses, then with specialization courses and are currently organizing u ndergraduate courses. Associations and Consortia. Are Higher Education Instituti ons in Brazil who join forces to offer distance learning courses at various leve ls. There are associations that are occasional, temporary, for a course or proje ct, eg. Project Pathways gathering at the invitation of State Secretary of Educa tion of Ontario, eighteen institutions of higher education to offer a course of education in early grades for in-service teachers who have higher level. This pa rtnership is done for this course and be exhausted at the end. • There are associations that claim to be durable, to join the best teachers, cour ses and resources of those institutions. They are also important to provide loca l support to students throughout Brazil. Some examples: UNIREDE Network (public universities), CEDERJ (Center for Higher Education in Rio de Janeiro, which gath ers the five public universities of Rio de Janeiro), RICESU (Network of Catholic Universities of Higher Education). IUVB - Brazilian Institute Virtual Universit y - A consortium of 10 private universities that make up a new institution for d istance learning courses. • Institutions only virtual - created exclusively for institutions offering distance education courses, currently operating only in ex tension courses. In Brazil we do not have the model or UNED Open University of S pain, institutions that exist only for distance education. We have portals or si tes that function as a virtual campus as Univ (www.univir.br), generally offerin g extension courses. The ordinance in 2253 the MEC of 18/10/2001 allows the curriculum of higher educ ation courses recognized can be offered at a distance up to twenty percent of th eir total workload. How is a recent directive universities are beginning to find ways to apply it. Some institutions, like the Anhembi-Morumbi, Unisul, the UNB, UNAMA - University of Amazonia, the Faculty Sumaré are encouraging teachers to put some courses online. The Unisul of Santa Catarina in March 2002 had 82 subje cts enrolled as on-line support. Some universities have started courses with som e recovery in whole or in part from a distance. Universities are also encouragin g the use of the Internet in subjects common to several courses and can be appli ed to larger number of students. In general teachers are familiar with the technologies and t hose working in distance education are willing to experiment and this will creat e the virtual culture, the knowledge within each institution to advance to more complex curriculum proposals, integrated and flexible until you find in every ar ea of knowledge and in which each institution is the balance between the face an d virtual. The twenty percent is an initial step of creating culture online.We can not define a priori a percentage of widely applicable to all situations. Som e courses require more physical presence, such as those utilizing the laboratory , the body which need interaction (dance, theater ....). The important thing is to try different solutions for various courses. We are all learning. No institut ion is far ahead in innovative online education. Within a few years this discuss ion of the presence and distance will have much less importance. Move towards an integration of the cores of distance education with existing nuclei or coordina tion of educational courses. Most undergraduate and postgraduate be semi-face an d distance courses have many ways to approach face-virtual (audiovisual greater contact between participants). 3. Networks of Distance Education Major consortia , networks or associations of institutions to offer higher level courses in Braz il are: • CEDERJ - Centre for Higher Education in Rio de Janeiro www.cederj.rj.g ov.br The Consortium Centre Distance Education of the State of Rio de Janeiro - CEDERJ is an initiative of the Public Universities of Rio de Janeiro with the De partment of Science and Technology and municipal governments to train teachers i n the distance service without higher level and open the various degrees pricing for future teachers in the State. The universities: Universidade Estadual do No rte Fluminense - UENF, State University of Rio de Janeiro - UERJ, Universidade F ederal Fluminense - UFF, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro - UFRJ, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro - UFRRJ; University of Rio January - UNIRIO;. Now t here are two degrees distance running - Mathematics and Sciences with approximat ely 800 students - and are being allowed to graduate in pedagogy and in other ar eas of knowledge. The courses alternate moments and attendance the distance and use printed educational material, CD-ROM, Internet, face tutori ng and distance learning in regional clusters organized in schools in partnershi p with municipalities, equipped with laboratories, libraries, computers, Interne t. Assessments are made at a distance and in person. • Institute UVB - Brazilian Virtual University www.uvb.br The Brazilian Network for Distance Learning is th e result of the association of 10 higher education institutions in the country w hich formed the Institute IUVB.BR. The network has 10 institutions in various re gions of the country, bringing together more than 6000 teachers and over 100 000 students in classroom learning, with courses in all areas of science. The insti tutions are: University Anhembi Morumbi - Anhembi Morumbi; Unicentro Newton Paiv a - Newton Paiva University Potiguar - UNP; Universidade da Amazônia - UNAMA, Un iversity for Development of the State and Pantanal Region - UNIDERP; Centro Univ ersitário Monte Serrat - UNIMONTES; University of Southern Santa Catarina - UNIS UL; the Triangle University Center - UNIT; University Veiga de Almeida - UVA, Un iversity Center Vila Velha - UVV IUVB The Institute offers courses in extension, specialization and is asking for authorization to MEC to offer five courses gra duate distance. The emphasis is on online courses via the Internet in the humani ties (Administration, Economics, Tourism ...). Teachers of the main courses are usually part of the management of the university admission test, especially the Anhembi-Morumbi. As an Institute can offer undergraduate courses as an autonomou s entity, without the accreditation of each university specifically for distance education. • Unired - Public Virtual University of Brazil www.unirede.br The Unired is a consortium comprising 68 public institutions of higher education , has the support of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and FINEP . It enables the best public institutions powers to join a work network, based o n intensive use of information technologies and communication, avoiding initiati ves duplicators, dispersal of resources. Are currently developing some undergrad uate courses, specialization and extension. The potential is immense. The difficulties are in the management of universities streamline burea ucratic, slow on the competitiveness of private institutions. The UNIREDE develo ps ProDocência Program, whose goal is to offer undergraduate courses from 1st to 4th grades and Sciences for more than 800 000 teachers Brazilians without gradu ation. So far there are six universities that are offering undergraduate courses for teachers in service who have no higher level.They are: Federal University of Mato Grosso (UFMT), Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto, Universidade Federal do Espirito Santo (UFES), Federal University of Maranhão (College) University of Mato Grosso (UNEMAT), State University of Santa Catarina (UDESC), Universidade Estadual de Maringá (UEM) The major problem of public universities is the depend ence on government funding because they can not charge the student. But now, in July 2002 was adopted in the Draft Budget Guidelines Law (LDO) for an amendment in 2003 authorizing the transfer of funds to create 180,000 jobs in distance lea rning for the qualification of teachers who have university. • UniVirCO - Virtual University Midwestern www.universidadevirtual.br / univirco_i ndex.htm It is a consortium of technical cooperation, scientific and academic comprised o f seven (7) federal and state public universities in the Midwest Region. The coo perating institutions are: State University of Goias UEG, State University of Ma to Grosso do Sul - UEMS, Universidade Federal de Goiás - UFG Virtual, Federal Un iversity of Mato Grosso do Sul - UFMS, Federal University of Mato Grosso - UFMT; State University Mato Grosso - UNEMAT; University of Brasilia - UnB Virtual. Th e UniVirCO aims to encourage research on group and collective projects, research ing new ways of learning in online environments: new strategies for planning, de velopment and evaluation, enabling the initial and continuing training of teache rs and professionals from different segments of society in order to expansion of knowledge. With the creation of UNIREDE seems little to set specific performanc e of UniVirCO as a smaller network (Midwest) within the national network. • RICESU - Network of Catholic Institutions of Higher Education www.ricesu.com.br Is forming a network of Catholic institutions to act in Higher Education Distanc e. The cooperating institutions are: the Catholic University of Campinas - PUC-C ampinas, Catholic University of Paraná - PUC-PR, Catholic University of Rio Gran de do Sul - PUC-RS, Catholic University of Brasilia - UCB, Catholic University o f Pernambuco - UNICAP, Catholic University of Santos - UNISANTOS, Universidade d o Vale do Rio dos Sinos - UNISINOS, Catholic University of Salvador, UCSAL, Dom Bosco Catholic University - University Center UCDB and La Salle - UNILASALLE. In a first step in Catholic institutions have created an electronic magazine calle d collaborators @, dedicated to issues of teaching and learning mainly in the di stance, the first issue began in August 2001. The second initiative of the netwo rk is organizing a digital library with the achievements of universities. Curren tly RICESU are defining the policy of continuing education courses and the integ ration of human and technological resources. 4. Higher level courses in partnership Paths • Project Training Course Superior Teacher www.veredas.educacao.mg.gov.br/ The Course of the Department of Education of Ontario begins to be delivered in p artnership with 18 universities, universities and other higher education institu tions with experience in teacher education. Were offered 15,000 vacancies for te achers in year four years in elementary education, and 12,000 for the state syst em and 3,000 for the municipal education systems (for practicing teachers who ha ve no higher level). These vacancies were distributed in 21 regional centers and 29 sub-hubs (lots) to allow the participant teachers to participate in course a ctivities without getting out of their way of teaching. • PEC - Special Programm e for University Education of Teachers Program of the Department of Education of São Paulo in partnership with USP, UNE SP and PUC-SP.Trata is a special program for teachers full degree of the first g rades of elementary school. Began in June 2001, is coordinated by the universiti es PUC-SP, USP and UNESP account and currently has 6235 students, effective teac hers of public schools throughout the state of Sao Paulo, divided into three per iods and grouped in 46 Environments Learning distributed in 34 localities in São Paulo. The vast majority of these teachers (5815) is in practice as teachers in public schools statewide. The dropout rates and dropout of the course are low, from 6.45%. The workload should be at least 3100 hours of work, established by R esolution 12/01 of the State Board of Education, as follows: 1600 hours of cla ssroom activities, 400 hours of additional activities, 800 hours of profession al practice associated with recognition of the work . 300 hours of experiences in school educators, and The combined use of technologies and work attendance has enabled the development of the following types of activities. Conference Calls: classes taught by spe cial guests, which through exhibitions, written materials analysis and debate, d iscuss the central themes of the program. Are transmitted to all students, both from a studio set up on TV Cultura. Students interact through the use of fax and email. Video Conferencing: classes taught by professors from universities tha t address the theoretical and conceptual progress. Each videoconference can be t ransmitted to 4 / 5 classrooms, about 40 students, allowing the interaction of d ifferent groups in real time. The program has developed a systematic training an d a reference manual for teachers who use the technologies involved, aiming to m ake the most of its pedagogical potential. Work Tracked: supporting learning t hrough deepening the themes worked in teleconferencing and videoconferencing. Th e work sessions are monitored three types: online sessions (guided by teacher as sistants, intranet), off-line sessions (supported by teacher-tutors face to face ) and support sessions (developed by students, teachers from activities previous ly designated). For these how teachers are developing a specific support material for the program, both fo r movement on the web, as printed. The program has produced, with its own editor ial format, 1859 pages of printed content to support the study and learning sess ions and 16 LearnigSpace, learning environment used for the development of busin ess online. There is also a proper training program for assistant professors (wh o interact online) and monitoring and evaluation of job opportunities and intera ction raised by the work monitored online. Educating Experiences: pedagogical activities that accompany the process of formation, suggesting the linkage of th eoretical and conceptual practice of teachers. At this point of course, are conc entrated around the didactic study of different curriculum areas. Cultural Wor kshops: activities that aim at improving the cultural universe of student teache rs with regard to the different uses of reading and writing and various artistic events. 5. Leading institutions of higher education in distance learning are many instit utions that are developing higher education in Brazil. Virtually all institution s have a Center for Distance Education and offer some courses internally and ext ernally, short, medium or long duration. We indicate below some institutions amo ng many others that could be cited - who are currently standing out in distance learning and are contributing new courses or new methods of teaching and learnin g. • MT - Federal University of Mato Grosso www.ufmt.br The UFMT is linked to UN IREDE and UniVirCO The Federal University of Mato Grosso in Cuiaba, is one of th e pioneer universities in distance education in Brazil, especially in higher edu cation. In 1995 deployed Course Basic Education: 1 to 4 series, the modality Ful l Degree, started its operation in 1995, experimentally, in agreement with the D epartment of Education of the State of Mato Grosso and some municipalities of th e regional center of Colíder , MT, with 352 initial students, of whom 290 comple ted the course between 1999 and 2001. Was performed in 1999 a second vestibular about filling vacancies in 2164, distributed in 05 r egional centers in the cities of Colíder, Diamond, Juara, Juina and Newfoundland . Currently still enrolled 2067 students, with an average drop in the last two y ears, from 4.4%. In each pole, there is still a pedagogic-administrative structu re, with staff supporting the activities of the secretariat and a team of academ ic advisors, responsible for monitoring and guiding the process of learning the various municipalities under its jurisdiction. At each pole there is a coordinat or, elected from among the supervisors. These advisors play roles in the process of teaching and learning and curriculum evaluation. Each Regional Centre has a team of Academic Advisors at a ratio of 20 students per counselor. Students rece ive printed materials and CDROMs. The regional centers and local centers, school s of the municipalities, are equipped with computers, fax and Internet. The cour se also develops a UFMT Post Sensu Lato on Training in Distance Education. • PUC CAMP - Pontifical Catholic University of Campinas www.puc-campinas.br/edmc Dista nce Education has been offered since 1998, beginning with his Master's Degree in Computer Science. The Catholic University of Campinas and arrangements RICESU, Network of Catholic Institutions of Higher Education. It has a proper environmen t on the Internet. Offers the following courses: Graduate - Strictu Sensu (MSc) in Management Information Systems, Computer Systems Telecommunication Systems an d Information Technology. Graduate - Sensu Lato: Client Server Architecture, Edu cational Management: Perspectives from Praxis, Education and Training of Human R esources. Sequential courses: Specific Training on Resource Management and Produ ction; Specific Training in Information Technology Applied to Financial Institut ions. The PUC is, along with the Federal University of Santa Catarina, a pioneer in distance master's programs. The PUC implemented in March 1998 a pilot projec t on Distance Education Computer-Mediated - EDMC - as an option within the MSc i n Computing, involving eight students located at great distances from Campinas, ie Rondonópolis-MT, Uberaba-MG, Vitória-ES, Goiânia-GO, Salvador, Bahia, among o thers. Students attend regular classes at a rate of one quarter relative to the virtual classroom, they carried through to a combination of synchronous remote class (type of discussion or chat room) and as ynchronous (news-type group) via the Internet, where each discipline offers its courseware in Home-Page designed for the Masters Course (www.mestrado. nar.puc-c ampinas.br) • Universidade Anhembi Morumbi www.anhembi.br / ei ai Covenanted Bra zilian Institute Virtual University. Has proper environment for distance educati on and also uses the Blackboard environment. At the University Anhembi Morumbi T eaching Interactive (EI), which began in 1995 with the first course in Fashion o nline in Brazil, part of the Department of Education Interactive Distance Learni ng, and offers extension courses and graduate broadly the distance, and graduate courses to support their attendance. Graduation (support to face) Project Clini cs On-Line (for students of first semester at the University, to complement the areas of mathematics and Portuguese, workload 34 hours in eight weeks), Adaptati ons and Dependency Oriented Internet (offers courses : Scientific Research Metho dology, History of Science, Philosophy, Psychology, Social Sciences, Communicati on and Expression and Maternal and Child Nutrition). Graduate - Fashion Sensu La to in Communication (with emphasis on Arts and Culture, Marketing or Fashion Des ign). • UNIFESP - Federal University of São Paulo, EPM - Escola Paulista de Medi cina www.virtual.epm.br Covenanted the UNIREDE The Laboratory of Distance Educat ion (LED), the Department of Health Informatics (DIS), was formalized in 2000 an d is responsible for projects in distance education UNIFESP Virtual. The LED on the Internet environment itself. Offers the following courses Postgraduate Sensu Lato: Specialization in Chemical Dependency Specialization in Nutrition in Publ ic Health. Among the Extension courses are highlights: Basic Update on Dependencies Systema tic review and meta-analysis; Operative Technique and Experimental Surgery; Disa ster Simulation; Update in Clinical Nutrition - Module I. Update in Nephrology N ursing, Basic Dermatology for Clinicians ; Update for Teachers and Tutors for Di stance Learning Courses in Health, Introduction to EAD for the Masters in Ophtha lmology. Offers some undergraduate courses online courses in Biomedicine, Medici ne, Technology Ophthalmic and Speech Therapy. • RS-PUC Pontificia Universidade C atolica do Rio Grande do Sul www.ead.pucrs.br Covenanted the RICESU In 1997 the Rector of PUC RS created a working group aimed at creating a Virtual University. In 1999, the project's accreditation PUC Virtual RS was referred to the MEC for approval along with the Chemical Engineering course at a distance. In 2000, he officially inaugurated the PUC Virtual RS. It is a university better equipped fo r Distance Education. Offers classes via video and teleconferencing, Internet an d printed material. Offers extension courses, undergraduate and broad sense. PUC -RS is offering the first undergraduate course in chemical engineering from the distance in partnership with OPP Petrochemical In 2001/2002 SA is developing 13 courses and six specialization courses in length, with an average of 3000 studen ts. In Specialization,highlights are the courses: Civil Procedure (360hs 2002/j ulho-April 2003) Special Education (380hs 2002/junho-May 2003) Business Manageme nt (375hs 2002/julho-April 2003) Health Management: Emphasis hospital (375hs- 20 02/dezembro April 2002) Political Marketing and Persuasion Elections (360hs 2002 /julho-June 2003) Guidance Educational Psychology in Educational Process (360hs + 2002/julho work completion in April 2003) Psychology in Organizations (360hs + job completion - April 2002 / July 2003) Psychology in Communication (360hs + c onclusion work - 2002/2003) Psicooncologia (+ 375hs conclusion work - 2002/julho May 2003) School Supervisio n (+ 375hs conclusion work - 2002/junho April 2003) Information Technologies and Communication in Education (390hs-August 2002 / July 2003). • UNB - University of Brasilia www.ned.unb.br The University of Brasília is one of the pioneers in distance education, especia lly in expertise from the eighties. It is one of the coordinators of Unired and UniVirCo. Some courses use more print, others the Internet. UNB is currently dev eloping a special course for graduate distance of Education for Teachers in offi ce at the beginning of Schooling, which is authorized by the MEC at the request of the Secretary of Education's Federal District. The course lasts for 03 (three ) years, with a workload of 3210, with paid 1284 hours (40%) attendance and 1926 hours (60%) did not face, worked with resources of multimedia technology, print ed texts, videos and interactions of the INTERNET. Started in 2001 with 1,000 st udents - teachers in service for six months to complete 5000 in the first half o f 2003. UNB is hosting six (06) Computerized Regional Centers for Education desi gned to meet the teacher students and monitors the development of classroom task s and provide support to the activities carried online. Courses offered at Postg raduate Sensu Lato: Institutional Evaluation; Science Education under the prism of the Environmental Education Training in Social Work and Social Policy, Public Health Dentistry. And many developing extension courses, including: The Writing as Freedom, Education, Municipality and Citizenship; Science Education under th e prism of Environmental Education, Training Agent Indigenous Oral Health; Freud , Thought and Action; Critical Introduction to Law; Critical Introduction to Lab our Law, Jean-Jacques Rousseau; Manual Creation and Development of Materials for Distance Learning, Thinking Restless, Social Policy, Prevention of Drug Abuse - Say YES to Life. • UFPR - Federal University of Parana www.nead.ufpr.br Covenanted the UNIREDE In mid-September 1998 was prepared Intersectoral Commission charged with develop ing a pre-proposal to create a core of Distance Education at the University. On January 28, 1999, the University Council approved unanimously the institutionali zation of distance education at UFPR and Ordinance No. 370/99 of the Rectory of February 10, 1999 creates the NEAD - Center for Distance Education. Full Graduat e Degree Course in Education - Initial Series of Elementary Education (2368 3240 hs being the distance to 872 actual), accredited and approved by MEC. He opened the first college entrance exam, in May 2000, 600 vacancies, and two hundred for the region of Pato Branco (PR), two hundred for the region of Apucarana (PR) an d over two hundred places for a religious institution. All candidates who underw ent the selection process are teachers who are working in early childhood educat ion and / or lower grades of elementary school and are bound to entities in agre ements. Held so far two buccal and has over 800 students. Graduate Course UNIRED E Training Distance Education. Course of 480 h, corresponding to modules that ca n be routed independently and / or complementary, providing different levels of certification: Extension (45h to 150 h) Improvement (180 ha 300h) Speciali zation Latu Sensu (480h) - including monograph. The course is conducted primaril y through the Internet, with the consolidation of collaborative learning groups (chats, forums and mailing lists) and supporting printed material, video and tel econferencing. Training Course for Teachers (360hs 33% attendance, 20% mentoring and 47% by distance) and Course Integrated Media (360hs 33% attendance, 20% men toring and 47% by distance) • AIEC - International Association of Continuing Edu cation Administration College of Brasilia www.aiec.br The International Association for Continuing Education - AIEC is the first schoo l to implement an undergraduate course in the administration away in Brazil.It is maintained by FAAB -. It currently has around 800 students in two vestibular. Maintains Regional Centers support in rooms of the Associati on of Staff of the Bank of Brazil. These centers are carried out verifications o f learning, working group meetings, debates, films or lectures and attendance of the Secretariat. Each Centre has a Regional Coordinator who supervises the admi nistrative activities of the course. • UFMS - Universidade Federal de Mato Gross o do Sul www.ead.ufms.br Linked to UNIREDE UniVirCO and develops the Undergradua te Program in Education, Licentiate in the modality with qualification in teache r training for the early years of elementary school authorized by the MEC . Last ing at least 4 (four) years and a maximum of five (5) years, the course has 50% of the time and attendance 50% of the time distance for teachers and students of Mato Grosso do Sul uses printed material itself and Internet. Held the first en trance exam. Other important courses Postgraduate Sensu Lato: Pedagogical Adviso rs in Distance Education. Professional Education in Health: Nursing, Educational Policy and Management, Art Education and new Tecnologias.UF • UFSC - Universida de Federal de Santa Catarina www.led.ufsc.br www.ufsc.br The University is a pio neer courses that use videoconferencing and Internet distance from the LED - Lab oratory of Distance Education Course Production Engineering. Currently, LED spli t the Department of Production Engineering. Main courses Post - Lato Sensu are: Entrepreneurship, Management and Engineering Rural and Agroindustrial; Productio n Engineering: Management and Rural Agroindustrial; Management of Technical Educ ation, Treasury Management, Strategic Planning: Emphasis in Agribusiness, Market ing for Business Management. And in continuing education: Introduction to distan ce education, school management, business creation, Young Entrepreneurs, Environ mental Education • UDESC - Universidade Estadual de Santa Catarina Linked to http://virtual.udesc.br Unired The main course Graduate Distance is th e Pedagogy. The Virtual UDESC this leading to EAD to 136 municipalities in Santa Catarina, serving approximately 15,000 students. Uses basic written text, Inter net and support of municipalities of Santa Catarina. The workload of the course is 3210 hours / lesson / activity, corresponding to 214 credits. Of the total ho urs, 2565 (171 credits - 80%) are developed in the form of distance education an d 645 (43 credits - 20%) are reserved for physical meetings. These meetings are held weekly in Core Training, in the presence of a tutor. The minimum percentage of the frequencies for the classroom, in every discipline of course, is 75%. Mo reover, one of the evaluations of discipline is a written test of individual cha racter, in which the student must also be present. Graduate Course - Specializat ion in School Management, which aims to enable the management teams of public sc hools and other professionals involved with it. The course is being offered in S anta Catarina and Ceara (Agreement with the State University of Ceara and the Se cretary of State of Ceara). • UFRGS - Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul ww w.ufrgs.br The Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul develops a course Postgra duate Sensu Lato distance on Computers in Education. Among the courses Extended Distance are: Municipal Administration effective with the Fiscal Responsibility; Surface Design, Fundamentals and Techniques, Groupware, Strategic Planning in H ealth Degree is offered in the distance the discipline of Management Information Systems. The URGS uses virtual environments and Aulanet NAVI, among others. • U FES - Federal University of Espirito Santo www.neaad.ufes.br Covenanted the UNIR EDE offers the following courses: Undergraduate Education in early grades of ele mentary school, major in Full Degree in Distance Education, accredited by the ME C. It is preparing courses: Public Administration and Management and Teacher Tra ining. The UFES is beginning to offer a course on distance education in Occupational Sa fety and improvement in distance learning for Academic Advisors, Specialist in O ccupational Safety; improvement in DL; Improvement in Distance Education - Acade mic Advisors; Improvement in Sports Education. Acts in the Coordination Center f or Regional Provision of Extension Course at the School TV and Today's Challenge s, sponsored by UNIREDE and the Department of Distance Education of the Ministry of Education. The courses offered in distance learning mode,are structured by combining the modalities of Distance Learning and Face, a practice bimodal or se mi-presence. One third of the academic activities are conducted in person, via t eleconference "open" academic advising individual or groups and the presentation of thematic workshops every six months. The tests are conducted in person. • FG V - Fundacao Getulio Vargas www.fgvsp.br / gvnet The virtual environment is WebC T offers mainly the Specialization Course of Business Executives (396hs / 2 or 3 semesters), with some classes, video conferences, activities through synchronou s chats WEB and asynchronous activities. • UCB - Catholic University of Brasilia www.catolicavirtual.br Sensu Lato develops courses in Tourism, Philosophy and L ife, Distance Education. It has its own environment and in some courses the Univ ersite. Some courses are on the Internet, such as tourism. Others, such as dista nce education use more impressed with the support of the Internet. Also develop an online course for university teachers of institutions salessianas Brazil and many Latin Americans and Europeans about: Cooperative learning and educational t echnology at the University. • UFPE - Universidade Federal de Pernambuco www.vir tus.ufpe.br Linked to UNIREDE Federal de Pernambuco Virtus is developing the environment since 1996. He is cur rently developing courses Sensu Lato: Integrated Management of Cultural Heritage ; Hypermedia. Of extension courses include: E-learning for HR development, Infor mation management in a web environment, Internet and education - by creating the ir virtual learning community; Introduction to computers in education; Introduct ion to online journalism, Introduction to Programming with applications in Java; Investigative journalism on the Web; Media applied to education. 6. Analysis of Higher Distance Education Institutions current higher learning ar e finally beginning to act clearly and decisively in Distance Education. The adv ancement of the Internet is bringing big changes to face education by introducin g moments and techniques of distance education. And distance education begins to approach the face, leaving the niche where it was. To the extent that each inst itution develops alone or networked undergraduate, specialization, extension, an d now the Post strict sense, acquires jurisdiction, attracting new students and markets, losing the fear of risk and legitimizing this form of education. The cu rrent situation is very dynamic. There is an effervescence of projects in all ar eas, levels and markets. Companies are continuously searching processes of train ing, partnering with top universities. The Education Departments also seek these higher institutions and courses for HMOs. The 40 000 students enrolled in Highe r Distance Education and the potential of students seeking to enroll in new cour ses do provide a more rapid growth of the institutions concerned. Right now we h ave a wide variety of courses. There are courses of short and long term, there a re few courses for students (under 30) and courses with more than 15 000 student s. Courses are fully online, virtual and other printed using only post. There ar e courses that are content packages with little interaction and exchanges with m any others, exchange, where you create learning communities. Is advancing the us e of electronic means in higher education, freedom of access, low cost and ease of communication. Most classroom courses and distance remains focused on content , focused on information, a professor at the student individually and in interac tion with the teacher / tutor. Some distance courses are beginning to be focused on building knowledge and interaction; balance individual and group, and intera ction between content (learning cooperative), a partly prepared content and partly built over the course. The cl assroom courses begin to be combined with time and space do not face. We're star ting out, at certain times of the classroom. Also begin to learn in virtual envi ronments, combining them with the face. And in distance education, with online c ommunication, we are finding more, leaving the insulation that used to exist. Th e virtual communication tools so far are predominantly written, walking to be au diovisual. For now write messages, replies, we simulate spoken communication. Th ese chats and forums allow remote contacts could be useful, but we can not expec t that just so happens a great revolution, automatically.Largely depends on the teacher, the group's maturity, motivation, time available, the ease of access. Some students communicate well in the virtual, others not. Some are quick at wri ting and reasoning, others not. Some try to monopolize the discourse (as in face ) are just like other observers. It is therefore important to try a new method o f online education, developing activities, research, projects, forms of communic ation and virtual environments. With the expansion of broadband networks are beg inning to be able to quickly access information on courses, to be able to upload videos and audios, to allow viewing of the teacher and student groups in real t ime and a relatively low cost. Both the regular classroom courses such as the di stance will approach from the standpoint of technical and methodological problem s. Predominate in the coming years semipresential courses, enjoying the best of being together and we're better connected. We walked to a strong relaxation of c ourses, time, space, management, interaction, methodology, technology, assessmen t. This forces us to experience personal and institutional models of courses, le ssons, techniques, research, communication. All universities and educational org anizations at all levels, need to experience how to integrate virtual and face, ensuring meaningful learning. It is important that the cores of distance educati on universities come out of their isolation and reach out to the departments and groups of teachers interested in relaxing their classes, to facilitate transit between the face and virtual. Bibliography ALAVA, Séraphin (Org.). Cyberspace and open fields: towards a new educational pr actice?. Porto Alegre: Artmed, 2002. ALMEIDA, M. E. B. Project: a new culture of learning. Available at: http://www.proinfo.gov.br>. Accessed: 25/03/2002 AZEVÊDO, W. Vanguard (technolog ical) delay (educational): impressions of an online educator from the use of cou rseware tools. Available at: <http://www.aquifolium.com.br/educacional/artigos/v anguarda.html>. Accessed: 31/03/2002. 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In June 2004 we have approximately 153 undergraduate courses at a distance ap proved 50 accredited institutions, 40 undergraduate, 90 specialization, 13 and 1 0 sequential technological distance, with more than 200 000 students)