The Management of a Brazilian Model of Distance Education Distance Education at the Federal University of Santa Catarina Authors Eduardo Lobo, M. Eng. is the Administrative Manager of the Distance Education Laboratory of the Industrial Engineering Post Graduate Program of the Federal University of Santa Catarina – Brazil – [email protected] Amir Mattar Valente, Dr. is the Executive Director of the Distance Education Laboratory of the Industrial Engineering Post Graduate Program of the Federal University of Santa Catarina – Brazil – [email protected] Ricardo Miranda Barcia, PhD. is the Director of the Distance Education Laboratory of the Industrial Engineering Post Graduate Program of the Federal University of Santa Catarina – Brazil – [email protected] Marcos Baptista Lopez Dalmau is Researcher of the Distance Education Laboratory of the Industrial Engineering Post Graduate Program of the Federal University of Santa Catarina – Brazil – [email protected] Abstract The offering of graduate programs by the Federal University of Santa Catarina, through distance education has been introduced with the integrated media concept and advanced digital communication technologies. Such approach is creating objective conditions to put in check resistance of the Brazilian academic community to distance education and also some doubts concerning its efficacy. At the same time it has been contributing to the creation of an appropriate culture for instructional design, for the elaboration of tools, for technological management, for mediation and tutorial systems, and finally, for systems to evaluate distance education in Brazil. The paper is focused in those management issues, that the distance learning administrator has to deal with in order to achieve success, specially in a Brazilian context, that presents a previous history in distance education that must change. It is also presented the reasons for the Distance Education Laboratory –LED’s success in it’s programs.

Introduction Post graduation teaching in Brazil, in the past few years, has been going through two distinct and simultaneous phases: the increase of demand by members of every knowledge field and the difficulties faced by normal or traditional teaching institutions in supporting such demand. Considering the role of marketing that technological innovation, its solid knowledge and domain, has in the global economy, many areas of knowledge need permanent training and professional formation, for the effective use of new technical approaches. Brazilian professors have been suffering pressure and also need improvement in their work market, more competitive each day. Due to the latest governmental requirements concerning the formation needed for professors of faculties and educational institutions, the demand for courses like master and doctoral degrees, besides specialization, has been growing. The only and best way to achieve that number is through distance education. At the moment, in Brazil, there is a growing expectation referring new policies for human resources which make, the efforts of training and development of many professionals, not only in the educational field, easier. Distance Education is a way to be adopted since it has potential to embrace a large number of people. The intellectual capacity becomes the main input and the main product of the new economy, based on knowl edge. 1. The Concept of Distance Education The designation of distance education is applied to the set of methods, technical, and resources, available to people with a minimum of maturity and enough motivation to acquire knowledge in a self learning proces s. It is based on the proved idea that any adult, having basic knowledge can acquire new information and transform it into advanced knowledge, and also learn by himself or herself, without a direct relation professor/student, if it is provided the totality of didactic elements associated to the teaching of a certain matter: basic and complementary texts, bibliographic indications, exercises and applied work, several forms of solving questions or illustration of the subjects, and, finally, elements for partial and final evaluation. Distance education is also related to new technologies that make the face to face communication possible between people in practically every site on the planet, and that allow the access and the local or remote use of data banks and information processing units, leading to a exponential acceleration in the capacity of production and dissemination of knowledge. It can be considered, according to Barcia et al (1997), that the Distance Education has three distinct generations: Table 1 – The Distance Education Generations Generation Beginning Characteristics 1st Until 1970 Studies by correspondence , in which the main means of communication were printed materials, generally a study guide, with assignments and other exercises sent by mail. 2nd 1970 The first Open Universities emerge, with systematized design and implementation of distance courses, using, in addition to printed materials, transmission through open television, radio and audio/ video tapes with interaction via phone, satellite and cable TV. 3rd 1990 This generation is based on conference networks by computer and multimedia workstations. Source: BARCIA et al, 1997, p.9. According to BARCIA et al (1997), the LED is an example of 3rd generation of Distance Education in Brazil, by the intensive use of communication networks in the Educational field. Such approach has changed the scenario of educational atavism and established instructional modeling, structured for learning in cooperative and shared environments of teaching-learning. The LED innovation in remote teaching is featured by the consideration of strategies such as:

• • • • • •

Identification of the learning needs; identification of the cultural profile of the students and the language metaphors; verification of technological access condition of the environments to be used; evaluation of the need to implement or expand communication and information systems for the students as a requirement for the beginning or continuing of the courses offered; requirements concerning the improvement of skills by the users in knowledge acquisition and also improvement in the individual or group development in non-certificate programs, training programs, certificate programs for different kinds of institutions; customized analysis to define pedagogical approach, instructional design, material projects and the use of interactive media.

Another preponderant and differentiating factor of the Distance Education developed and practiced by the LED, is the evaluation method of the students, professors, monitors and tutors, as well the pedagogical design adopted. Evaluations are made, necessarily, in the face to face form, having the participation of the professor or the tutors, especially trained to take care of such phase of the course. 3. Features of Distance Education in Brazil The application of Distance Education in Brazil, through certificate and non-certificate courses allows: • • • • •

Time saving: avoids commuting of highly qualified people, normally in different position at the institution or enterprise; Resources economy: by saving with trip expenses; Integration of professionals of the institution or enterprise; More productivity in training: a larger number of professionals trained at the same time and in a homogeneous form; Agility in updating the functional board of the firm.

It must be observed that in order to satisfy the targets above, the DE is presented as a tool for formation, training and professional recycling : • Internet The Web site, developed by the LED team, makes the management of the academic production of the students in the integration programs between university and enterprises easier. It was created from the need to aggregate the agility of the Internet to the functionality of a virtual environment oriented for teachinglearning. In its conception it was used the metaphor of the functional and cognitive routine of the university environment, considering sites for formal and informal meetings. • Videoconferencing Nowadays, the videoconferencing offers an accessible solution to the need of communication, with systems which allow to transmit and receive visual and sound information between different points, through physical satellite and microwave links, having lower costs and higher quality. Remote rooms have the same basic equipment: a camera, a TV set, computer, a data compression and decompression device (CODEC), modem, microphone and keyboard. It allows the application of pedagogical recourses which increase the quality of the class. • Teleconferencing This is how the reception by cable or parabolic antenna, in Brazil, is called. Thus the expectation interact with participants in the studio asking questions and interviewing by telephone, fax or e-mail. Comparing to the videoconferencing the teleconferencing does not offer much interactivity between professors and students. On the other hand, it has the advantage of holding a larger audience, reaching people all over the country or continent.

• Video-class A multi-discipline group working and researching the LED has been producing video-classes – such group is composed by teaching experts, communication professionals, industrial engineers, phone-audiologists, theatre professionals, and other areas. The public of such products is very large and different: since transportation enterprises employees to teachers of the public networks, children and teenagers. To produce a video-class there is a careful analysis of the clients profile and language, considering their features in order to define the methodology , evaluation more adequate to each case. • Printed material For many years the printed media was the main instrument of Distance Learning. It was the only one available. From the second half of the 20th century, there was an advance in such way of teaching and learning. Even though, considering the new technologies available nowadays, books, and notebooks still are fundamental in Distance Learning.. Printed information can be versatile and a low cost alternative if compared to other kind of media. It provides more comfort when the text is long. The use of printed texts with other means can increase the results of a Distance Learning program. Therefore, it can be assumed that printed material has a strategic use in the projects develop by the LED, using normal mail or using Internet printing where students are. 4. O LED/PPGEP/UFSC – A little bit of history In the UFSC – Federal University of Santa Catarina, in the Industrial Engineering Post Graduate Program, in a pioneer initiative, in 1995, the construction of a model of Distance Education has begun. After that year, the LED started growing and developing pedagogical strategies and using advanced digital communication in such models. Through Distance Education Programs it is possible to obtain scale profit, i. e., to attend a large number of students, institutions, enterprises, promoting the democratization of the access to post graduation courses. The non-certificate programs and training programs must be considered too.

Figure 1 – Videoconference room s at LED/PPGEP/UFSC It must be observed that the attending of the demand is given from the knowledge of every variable, which characterize such request. This is one of the main topics of the Programs, consortia and projects developed by LED/PPGEP/UFSC. Besides projects Distance Education development, the research field is attended, by the evaluation of DE in digital communication environments, which aggregate qualitative results capable of modifying paradigms, convictions and institutionalized procedures adopted by the scientific community. 5. The model of LED/PPGEP/UFSC In the project of implementation of the Laboratory two parallel ways where taken: In the implementation of the Lab there was a process of technological acquisition and also efforts of pedagogical innovation, aiming the critic appropriation of previous experiences of DE in Brazil and also the evolution by the incorporation of mediation processes via distance by the use of monitors and tutors off line and on line, as a support to

feedback systems from the diagnostics evaluations of the learning difficulties showed by students or inadequate contents, inadequate printed materials, and methodologies adopted for the courses. In the LED, to guide the work groups, the concept of Integrated Media for DE has been adopted, seeking the appropriation of new technologies in consonance with the characteristics of the public and the learning objectives defined in the modeling of the system to be offered. In order to be adapted to the characteristics of the Brazilian society, the Integrated Media concept incorporates, rather than excluding, the use of first and second generation DE media. Based on communication theories, LED has developed research to seek language suitable to the use of Internet, videoconference, teleconference, video-classes, CBT’s, printed materials, fax and telephone media, within a process of distance education directed towards stimulating in the students the responsibility of learning, whether in interfaces of student-media or student-content, student -teaching institution, student teacher-tutor, or student-student, so as to establish cooperative learning’s practice and culture. The search for references and bibliography for the formation of a group that could fit the parameters set by Barcia1 where “besides generating products of communication for the use in education, the Distance Education Laboratory is also a center for producing knowledge, research and academic reports on the theme, involving the generation of new opportunities for action and continuous improvement of the aesthetic and pedagogical qualities of the products that both generate and apply” has represented a challenge. Scientific production in Brazil is scarce and what has existed has not fulfilled the integrated media concepts, especially those of the 3rd generation. The alternative has been to concentrate research on the international scenario. The actions for the formation of the knowledge center reached solid features in various ways: - Intense research in Internet looking for institutions that have worked with DE and its ‘modus operandi” and the articles kindly placed in www - Acquisition of books /journals and proceedings of national and international congresses, seeking to start a library on this theme; - Invitation of some leaders in this area to administer workshops and teach classes in Florianopolis 2 ; - Send students linked to the program to study in leading institutions in their area, who keep in permanent contact with Brazil, bringing further sources and references. - The participation of students linked to LED in national and international congresses. For the Distance Education Laboratory, both the present and the distant student is understood as an agent for building his/her own knowledge. Not merely as one who is self-educated and who seeks his/her own way, but as a participant, aware of an organized and systemic process, in which his/her teaching institution offers him/her the tools of mediation, the resources of tutorial process, access to, and appropriation of, contents and mainly management of the route to arrive at the required knowledge. As stated by Barcia, LED understands the distant student as a “giddenian being” 3 - an agent capable of reading the scenarios in which is immersed, of setting goals, of designing strategies and defining and developing tentative procedures to reach the desired results. Such agents cannot be understood as subjects 1

Barcia, Ricardo; et. Al. A experiência da UFSC em programas de requalificação, capacitação, treinamento e formação a distância de mão de obra no cenário da economia globalizada. In: INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON CONTINUING ENGINEERING EDUCATION FOR TECHONOLOGY DEVELOPMENT, Rio de Janeiro, 1996. 2 In May of 1997 prof. Michael Moore (Penn State and Moore & knight Telematics for Education) delivered lecture to the LED’s team. From March to May 1997 Prof. Wolfram Laaser - FerUniveritaet -Hagen taught multimedia class as a guest teacher and held an evaluation’s workshop with LED’s team. In February 1998 Luiz Lobo, Msc of IOWA Public Television taught a course to LED’s team. In 1999 was established a consortia with MIT, and the LED team received Dr. Nishkant Sonwalkar. 3 See the concept of "agent" in A Constituição da Sociedade (The Constitution of Society). Anthony Giddens: Martins Fontes, São Paulo, 1989.

determined by the environment in the trajectory of their existence, but as individuals who, despite limitations and conditions determined by the environment, are able to "undetermined" any process if dare to undertake projects that, from their own view, mean the construction of a course oriented towards his/her individual goals. This meaning of a student as an agent, an empowered student4, surely is emerging – if not incipient in the traditional education scenario in Brazil, whether with the student present or at distant. To break with canons established over centuries of reproduction in the Braz ilian schools, LED sets out to act, not only on the cultural bases of the institutions, of teacher and technician support involved in the distance education process, but seeking an articulated action to build educational scenarios oriented towards the creation of a differentiated culture in distance education. Paralleling the creation of LED, the concentration areas of Media and Knowledge was structured by PPGEP, where master's and doctorate students involved with the lab use their researches on the state of art for the theme of the developing courses, and the products developed and followed-up during their implantation and implementation time, serving as case studies in theses, dissertations and articles, and creating a short-term research-application-evaluation cycle. The academic production of the professionals linked to LED, for example, illustrates this break with past practices and the creation of a new research practice, where courses and products are developed and accompanied during their implantation and implementation time, serving as case studies in academic research.5 6. The LED Model and its strategy The model developed to implement the LED is structured as a generative process, that is, no other model has been adopted as a reference. Despite an international benchmarking operation to identify the causes of success or failure in diverse experiences, the strategy adopted was to create LED own models, from production characteristics and from competencies defined as necessary by the Laboratory and adjusted to the clientele’s characteristics. From this situation-problem, the stages planned and executed to create and implement this culture were: Technological Acquisition, Pedagogical Innovation, Content Modeling and Distance Mediation, to build up education in the distance teaching-learning environments. In all the stages foreseen and implemented in the Distance Education Laboratory between June 1995 and July 1998, the points that demanded the greatest change in the academic culture were those of: i) pedagogic preparation of teachers and scripts for performing and interacting on off line and on line media; ii) preparation of content writers, instructional designers and script writers for modeling contents and activities in storage media; and iii) the dissemination of the concept of the distance student as an agent capable of overcoming the habitus of the Brazilian educational system, centered around teacher-student presence. A short report on the activities performed between '95 and '98 accounts for the Technological Acquisition stage – the first approach to the technical knowledge of installation, workability and range of the media used. In this stage, activities were developed to set the technological control of communication networks and environments for analogical or digital transmission; technological management control and product 4

Empowered student is a recurrent expression in the bibliography on learning trends at the end of the 20th century. This term can be understood, in Rosângela Rodrigues' interpretation, (see the footnote), as a 'student with power', in the sense that s/he is the agent who defines and seeks the knowledge and skills that are to comprise his profile of academic background and insertion in the labor market. See, for example, "Elements for a Vision of Where the World is Going" by Jan Visser, in World ICDE Conference, 18TH Proceedings. Pennsylvania State University, 1997. 5 RODRIGUES, Rosângela. Modelo de Avaliação para Cursos no Ensino a Distância: estrutura, aplicação e avaliação (Evaluation Model for Courses in Distance Teaching: structure, application and evaluation) . Master's dissertation defended in April/'98 PPGEP/UFSC.

generation control of communication systems via videoconference, teleconference and internet; the acquisition of competency to produce storage and retrieval information systems in CD-ROM, video, audio and printed material oriented to distance teaching. The strategy developed in the Distance Education Laboratory at UFSC, was to set out to assimilate communication and information technologies and develop applications for their use in distance education, specifically for the Brazilian context. The results have produced in Brazil a new scenario with characteristics of a process and educational consequences that break through the circle of theorizing and procedures that had always been subordinated to the domain of educational planning, limiting the capacity to offer graduate courses and actually preventing the already existing universities from developing competence and capacity for international competition by providing graduate courses at a distance in the world market with no boundaries of knowledge, making possible improved quality, multiplication and world distribution of telecommunication equipment, along with lower telecommunication rates and geometric progression in the expansion of Internet. Through its various programs that assist students located in practically all Brazilian states, LED has stimulated the formation of inter-state groups, in this way, offering the possibility of integration among all the different regions in Brazil, transcending geographic and political barriers, and promoting equality of access to knowledge and a first class technological education. Due to this initiative, LED has enabled even those students far from large centers of intellectual and academic production (located largely in the metropolitan areas of the South and Southeast), to continue their studies while remaining in the labor market, and with almost immediate applicability of their new knowledge to their jobs. 7. The main partners of LED/PPGEP/UFSC The classes of master degree courses through videoconference for Siemens in Curitiba, the first class for the oil company Petrobrás, which has started on August 1997 for six cities in the country and the second class which has started in October 1998 for twelve cities: Porto Alegre, Rio de Janeiro, Santos, São José dos Campos, São Paulo, Belém, Aracajú, Natal, Itajaí, São Mateus (ES), Campos (RJ) and Manaus. The LED/PPGEP/UFSC has reached all country with more than 1000 students in master degree courses via videoconference. Besides these master degree programs there are many institutions which have students in different levels, by the use of Internet, video-classes and printed material, teleconferencing, in institutional certificate and noncertificate programs, such as: SENAI, SINE, IBGE, CNI, SEBRAE, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health, Eletrobrás. The success of LED/PPGEP/UFSC in its programs is due to the intensive use of technology, with educational emphasis, considering that such technology must be faced as a tool. The constant research and actualization of its team have generated and guaranteed the position of national reference in the field of distance education. 8. The management model adopted by LED and its results After 1998 the LED growth was out of the limits, and the management of the Lab had to be changed. Therefore, it was created a new organizational structure, based on managers, such as Administrative, Academic, Processes, Financial, Production, and having two directors, called executive and general. Each manager has teams responding directly to supervisors. Nowadays the LED has more than 50 people divided into those five departments. Besides those changes, some specific topics were observed in order to guarantee the success and continuous growth: 8.1. Adequate organizational structure As pointed above, the organizational structure of LED has been changing. From the end of 1999 a new decentralization process took place: based on the need of increase the flow of information and also increase the quality of the services, providing better decision making processes.

In the year of 1999 the Lab had a very good phase. Because of that, such strategic decision became inevitable. The division of responsibilities by managers made the decision making process easier. This new structure provides more agility in solving operational and strategic matters. 8.2. Constant improvement by the feedback in the courses All the courses offered by LED have a common characteristic which is the way of obtaining information from the users about the course. Such information vary since the satisfaction degree generated by the offering of the course, until the measurement of the pedagogical and technological means. This approach makes possible assure the quality of the course and the control over the whole learning environment, as well the planning of new alternatives according to the needs of the users. 8.3. The choosing by qualified professors to teach in its courses This is one of the factors that most contribute to the success of the model. In a country like Brazil where, there aren’t enough qualified professionals in education, it is very important to prepare train and develop such people. The UFSC has very qualified staff, and the LED, counting on the support of the Industrial Engineering post Graduate Program – PPGEP, has such professors participating of the Distance Education Programs. Therefore, the UFSC is well prepared to teach via distance. 8.4. The use of educational processes, adapted to the users needs The use of pedagogic processes adapted to the users needs allows the Lab to offer contents acquirable in the courses, avoiding evasion. In general courses are set according to the area, and the pedagogic processes vary depending on the kind of course. 8.5. Investment in research capable of bringing results in short, medium and long period for the institution The investment in scientific research provides update personal to the LED, such factor allows competitive advantage, even though Porter actually says that this is no longer so important as it used to be. The results give more options of investment in technologies capable of improving the services offered, as well as to differentiate the methodologies and pedagogic basis of the course. Therefore, the institution trends to keep itself in a quality plateau during some time, keeping ahead from its rivals. 8.6. Offering different technological means for delivering courses and the exact design of the instructional material The difference of the LED management model comparing to other institutions is the different instructional designs for each course according to the demand. Such approach makes the management work easier because if the instructional design is proper, surely the course will be a success. The correct dimensioning of the instructional material allows the optimization of resources and scale gains for the structure, which is the Lab as a whole. 8.7. The composition of partnerships which share the same philosophy The LED has adopted a transparent working policy, which made many agreements through partnership principles all over the country possible. On the other hand, the option of spreading Distance Education concepts and its benefits has made of the Lab a reference for its partners, allowing a better assimilation of the institution philosophy and also a good business forecast. 9. Summary It is important to affirm that the success of the management of this specific Brazilian model of Distance Education is given not only by the strategy adopted by the LED, but also by the teams, by people which make it running and keep everything working. The management is just a guideline which fits. It can be observed that the position reached is a result of a maturation process of the Distance Education model. The management of that model is just a consequence. The option of dealing with it, is what differentiates from the rest.

As pointed by Moore [5]: “...the barriers impeding the development of distance education are not technological, nor even pedagogical. We have plenty of technology, and we have a fair knowledge about how to use it. The major problems are associated with organizational change, change of faculty roles, and change in administrative structures. Here we desperately need all the ideas and all the leadership that can be assembled. The starting point is to expose the problems...” Well, fortunately we had an alternative solution, beyond problems exposition, just on time to keep growing. 10. Bibliographical References [1]BARCIA, R. M. et al. Post Graduation via distance. The construction of a Brazilian Model. Florianópolis, LED/UFSC, 1998. [2]Videoconferencing. [on line] Available on the Internet. URL: http://www. starnet.net.ar/servicios/video.html. File captured on December 17th 1998. [3]Universidade Aberta. [on line] Available on the Internet. URL: http://www.univ-ab.pt/guia/guia_2.htm. File captured on December 17th 1998. [4]Laboratório de Ensino a Distância. [on line] Available on the Internet. URL: http://www.led.ufsc.br. File captured on December 17th 1998. [5] Moore, M. Administrative Barriers to Adoption of Distance Education - The American Journal of Distance Education - Volume 8 Number 3 (1994)