Information and Communication Technology and Distance Education in Brazil

The analysis of the different methodologies of education adopted by the leading universities in their distance education courses may instigate the interest of the professors involved with distance education, in the process of choosing the methodology that better assists the students who cannot or prefer not coming to campus.

For the universities that are introducing courses in the distance education one of the main challenges is to seek for the appropriate pedagogical language of learning carried on by multiple media available. The tutorship action is essential, being conclusive to the courses success. In this new model of education, the tutors act as a facilitator of the course rather than an specialized professor, because these courses are structurally less organized but focused on personalization, considering that the students are the responsible ones for taking care of its education.

The main goal of this paper is to create a conceptual model of analysis to identify how the information technologies and communication is being used in the distance education courses offered by high education institutions in Brazil. With the data gotten through research the objective is to present a comparative analysis capable to identify the interaction ways and support given to alike students among the universities, in other words, groups that have similar characteristics with respect to the pedagogical projects of its courses, its materials, courses structure, ways of interaction between professor and student, students attendance, public, adopted technologies and valuation systems as well.