CHAPTER 3 – DISTANCE EDUCATION

3.1 Analysis of the learning theories of the distance education

The theories on the distance education domain are fundamental the same way they are in any domain because beside the credibility they offer and the acknowlerdgement in the field that it reports itself they are also important in the development of the practices and research. Through the theories the variables and their relationships can be identified, which allows the researcher find an orientation of his or her investigation. According to Garrison (2002), theory is coherent and systematic ordering of ideas, concepts and models with the purpose of constructing meaning to explain, interpret and shape practice. It is in this way that the compared data analysis reflect not only the state of the situation of the theorectical production of the distance education but also the tendencies of each historical period.

In these last decades there have been several theories suggested in an attempt of covering all activities of the distance education. Among them we can distinguish the notable contributions from Otto Peters, Michael Moore, Borje Holmberg, Demond Keegan, D. R. Garrison, John Verduin and Thomas Clark. However, these theories differ or do not overlap in many aspects namely, on the way they approach the role of the three elements of the learning/teaching process. Furthermore, they try to give a brief image of the main ideas stated by these authors.

Otto Peters compares distance Education as a process of the industrial production, trying to identify the mutual characteristics such as: labour division, the mechanization, quality production, the normalization and centralization, in which its survival is ensured by its compatibility. The distance education is an educational option with sucess in a way it is compatible with the organization, principles and values of the industrial society. Years later, Peters follows the same line of thought in describing the way in which distance education must adapt itself to the changes of the industrial society, evolving according to the tendencies of the new post industrial era; the emergency of the more individualized technologies; more decentralized decision making and new values related to the quality of life, self realization, self expression and interdependence, this author predicted also changes that this way of teaching will experience to adapt itself to the evolution of the society.

 The distance education is a product of the industrialized society;

 The distance education must adapt itself to the changes of the industrial society;

 The distance education evolves according to the newpost industrial era.

For Michael Moore, the learning and teaching theory used to be independent in which there are two important slopes, the transational distance and the learner’s autonomy, relying more on the importance of the learners needs and with a clear emphasis on the independent study, autonomy. This theory is made up of two dimensions, the transational distance and the learner’s autonomy. For Moore the transational distance is a function of two variables: dialogue and structure, underlining the learner’s autonomy, that goes to the mister whenever necessary, who has a success as when higher is the his/her autonomous capacity, that is the maturation factor. The dialogue is related to the communication capacity between the mister and the learner whereas the structure is a response measure of a program to the needs of the individual learner. Moore considers that the autonomy appears as a consequence of the maturation process of the individual and that the distance education programmes, because of their structure, require learners with autonomous behaviour so that they are able to finish with success the such programs. Moore´s notions about dialogue quantity, structure and learner’s autonomy contributed for the forthcoming of the subsequent theoretical contributions.

 Existence of transational distance;

 The transational distance depends on:

 The dialogue among the mister and the learner;

 The structure, that is, the learning/teaching program taking into account the learner;

 The existance of the learner’s autonomy.

The theory of guided didactical conversation lays on the concept of the guided didactical conversation. The motivation for learning is based on the establishment of the personal relationship with the student. Borje Holmberg defends that the teacher-student is fundamental for motivation and that the distance education serves as a complement to that pre-requisit. The student’s autonomy in relation to the instructor/institution is one of the goals of the distance education (like Moore, the autonomous study). The Holmberg’s theory centers its analysis on the interpersonalization of the distance education process, taking place through non continuous means of communication, whereby there is a guided didactical conversation, having the student (learner) a greater autonomy, proposing as a goal the total learner autonomy in the promotion of his or her learning. The different communication processes (a loud thought, silent reading and guided text processing) aplied in the creation of printed pedagogical materials allow getting greater success in learning because it respects the different student learning rhythms and this is an individual interior learner process.

 Existence of the interpersonalization of the teaching process;

 Existence of a personal relationship among the mister and the learner so that there is motivation and consequent learning;

 Existence of the learner autonomy;

 Creation of an open system adapted to the individual learner rythm.

Demond Keegan believes that the theoretical basis for the distance education can be found in the general theories of education, if aspects related to oral or group communications excluded. For him, learning and teaching are separated on the time and place, but it ends up being recreated artificially in the moment it occurs, that is why it is important the relationship between the learning materials and the learning itself. Keegan considers that the distance education is not an interpersonal communication but a communication through the separation of time and place between the teacher and the student. The interpersonal communication is viewed as fundamental at the same time the use of the written materials is. The intersubjectivity that is present in the relationship between the mister and the learner has to be recreated artifitially so that the learning takes place. The influence of the learning relationship is present in the traditional school, as the learner is put in an environment, which is suitable to the learning support. Keegan thinks that for a student to partiicipates in the distance education programmes he or she needs to establish a linkage between the learning and the teaching processes through a deliberate recreated interpersonal communication. The interpersonal communication theme is similar to Holmberg thought even though he applied it directly to the teaching process whereas Keegan applies it in the learning process. The same way like Holmberg, Keegan also considers that the printed didactical materials must have most of the characteristics of the interpersonal communication, which must not be limited only to the telephone tutoring and tele-conference or similar ways. This is a fundamental process so that the distance education programmes are successful to the students, originating lower desertion indexes and better learning quality and higher status of the institution.

 Existence of a separation between the teaching act and the learning act;

 Learning taking place when the intersubjectivity present in the relationship between the learner and the mister is created artificially;

 Importance of the pedagogical materials in the learning process;

 Creation of a link between the teaching and learning processes through the interpersonal communication.

For Garrison, the distance education has been evolving due to the growing sophistication of technology and centers its importance also on the control of learning by the student in which the concepts like independence and autonomy are crucial besides defending the educational transation. The starting point for this theory is the educational transation between the learner and the mister and this theory relays on the “seek for the understanding and knowledge through debate and dialogue”, needing the establishment of a bidirectional among the learner and the mister, sees the result of the objectives of the relationship between the teacher and the student that is only possible through the dialogue or debate of ideias. The success will only be seen from the capacities of the students to be independent and to auto learn, and of the support that will be given to him or her in technical and documental terms and even from the mister himself, in the relationship with the student. Different from Moore and Holmberg, that characterise the learning as an internal individual process on the learner, Garrison, considers that the learning process requires interaction with the mister, arguing that if the mister and the learner are separated, it is necessary to provide them with the bidirectional communication means, using technologies to give support to the educational process. So the technology is one of the three factors that are considered by Garrison in his definition of the distance education. Garrison argues that the distance education is inseparable from technology, constituting this as a susteinable basis to evolution and development. The other implicit notion in Garrison is the concept of the learner autonomy, who tris to replace the concepts of independence and autonomy used by Moore and Holmberg. Garrison defines is as “an opportunity and the capacity to influence and lead certain events. The control within an educational environment can not be established only by one of the parts because the flow of the events lays on a collaborative platform. Garrison proposes that the control must be based on the inter-relationship (self learning), proficiency (capacity to face the self learning) and support (available resources to oriente and facilitate the educational process) corporized on the relationship between the mister, the learner and the contents.

 Existence of a bidirectional communication among the instructor and the student so that the interaction takes place;

 The distance education is inseparable from the technology.

The theoretical Model that contemplates more the adult education summoned by Moore and Garrison how they prorogate the practice of the distance education. Their theory lays in the concepts of dialogue, structure and learning autonomy proposed by Moore as well as on the attributes of the bidirectional communication and the separation mister-learner proposed by Keegan. The theoretical basis proposed by Moore is somehow amplified in John Verduin and Thomas Clark, defining three specific theoretical dimensions:

1st dimension: Dialogue/Support – they consider that the principal fundament of the dialogue is the support to the student that can vary from simple instructions related to realization of certain tasks to a more profound structure, having a strong component of motivation for the student.

2nd Dimension: Structure/Specialization – For these authors, the concept of structure is inseparable from the concept of competence or specialization. They refer that the degree of competence in a certain area, specialization, can occur in a situation of a conventional teaching, like the distance education, resulting mainly from the learner´s experience that is the function of the degree of the content structuring.

3rd Dimension: Competence/Autonomy – The authors start from Moore´s point of view about the learner´s autonomy, extrapolating it to situations in which the learner is within an environment of self - learning.

Verdium and Clark put their tonic not only in the concepts of dialogue, structure and learning autonomy, as well as on the bidirectional communication and the separation between the teacher and the student. They enhance the dimension of the dialogue as support, the structure/specialization in which to reach the specialized competence requires materials structuring and lastly the competence and autonomy in which the second aspect is considered essential for qualification of a certain competence.

 Existence of a dialogue/support on the mister

 Existence of a structure/specialization of the learning/teaching process

 Existence of some competence/autonomy of the leaner

The table 3.1 that follows compares six presented theoretical perspectives, in terms of central concepts associated to them, the major impacts and apparent factors that determine their apparition.

Table 3.1: Comparative table of the presented theoretical perspectives

Keegan worked up a study (Keegan, 1991) where he sums up some elements that he considers central for conceiving distance education:

 physical separation between teacher and the student, factor that distinguishes the face to face teaching;

 educational organization influence (planning, plan, project, guided organization), factor that distinguishes individual education;

 use of technical communication means, usually printed, to unite the teacher and the students and give educational contents;

 possibility of the existence of communication means bidirectional that enable dialogue and interactivity;

 possibility of occasional meetings with didactic goals and socialization;

 Individualized way of education.

3.2 Concept and characterization of the Distance Education

To introduce the theme on distance education, it is important first to define the face to face teaching. The face-to-face teaching is within the traditional education model and represents the typical face-to-face teaching that takes place in the classroom. The teacher and the students are physically on the same place, in an hour previously stated, for the realization of a lesson (Lima & Capitão, 2003).

Aretio (1994) identifies the major characteristics of the face-to-face teaching as being that:

 the students and the teachers limited by the geographical situations and timetable, are physically present;

 Passive learning by the students;

 Excessive use of paper;

 The teaching manuals get to the teaching institutions very often while they are oldated;

 The libraries with lack of resources in relation to the number of students and the existing information about a certain issue.

According to Nunes (2001) there exist concepts that by their short maturity or dependence on the others, take time to identify themselves with their own characteristics. It was like this in the distance education. First there was the conceiving, for being very simple and direct that would not be the distance education. Only from the 70s and 80s it was seen as what it was, that is, from the characteristics that determine or by their constructive elements. It was from the 80s that there has been an effort from the researchers in an attempt of conceiving a suitable distance education, aimed to defining it on the theorectical field (Bastos, 2003). Underneath follow some notions about the concept of the distance education.

Aretio (1994) defines Distance Education as a technological system of bidirectional communication that can be massive and that replaces the personal interaction, in the classroom, of the teacher and student, as a teaching preferential mean, by the systematic and combined action of different didactical resources and by an organization and tutoring that provides a flexible and independent learners´ learning.

According to Rurato and Gouveia (2005), the distance education takes place when the teacher and the students are separated (on the time and place). The direction that the concept takes today, gives emphasis to the distance in the space: use of telecommunication technology and data transmission, voice (sounds) and images (including the dynamics, that is, television or video).

Moore and Kearsly (1996) define distance education as a planned learning, that normally takes place by the separation between the teacher and the student and for that there are special techniques of course design, of instructional planning, special communication methods, via electronics or through other technologies as well as a special administrative organization.

According to Lima and Capitão (2003) the distance education is an educational model that allows learning with no space and time limits; this scenary presupposes the geographical or temporal separation among the teacher and the student, use of technologies (except correspondence courses) with basis to the control and educational learning process by the student.

From the different definitions presented, there are some relevant aspects that can be mentioned:

 Transformation of the traditional relationship teacher/student that takes place in the classroom;

 Interface among the participants of the teaching/learning process, that takes place through technological means, overcoming the space and time bias;

 Modifications of the teacher´s role, transforming the teacher into a learning facilitator;

 Wider coverage in terms of number of the students, be it by the geographical reaching.

Attempting to focus on the principal aspects, Rurato and Gouveia (2005) defines the following characteristics for the distance education:

 Openess – diversity and amplitude of the courses offer, with elimination of access bias serving a huge number and spread population, with different levels and learning styles;

 Flexibility – of space, of assistance and time, the learning rithms, with distinct formative itineraries that allow different entries and exits and the combination work/study/family;

 Efficacy – the individual is motivated to become a subject of his/her learning, use what he or she is learning, evaluate him or herself and for all this, he or she will need to get administrative, cognitive and pedagogical support through the integration of the bi-directional communication means;

 Permanent Training – in the professional field, there is a greater pursuit for the continuity of the formal education and, consequently, acquisition of new values, interests, attitudes and knowledge;

 Economy – avoids the movement and absence on the working place;

 Standardization – avoids the transmission of knowledge in a diversified way.

Besides these particularities, there are several acting areas identified within the distance education which, include from the conventional teaching to complementary teaching, to professional teaching, to the preparation and training of trainers or training of individuals or isolated groups with specific needs. As Santos (2002) defends on a current and global perspective, the distance education presents itself more as an alternative than as a complement to the traditional methods of the face-to-face teaching.

For the sake of this study, based on the referential above cited and seeking for an outlining of several concepts presented, there will be the following distance education concept adopted:

• It is a way of teaching, implemented by an educational organization, in which the teachers and the students are physically separated, needing the mediation of some sort of technology for establishing communication among them.

3.2.1 Components of a distance Education System

For a better understanding of the functioning of the distance education, underneath follows a model where the main components of a distance education system are related.

 Figure 3.1: Distance Education System. Adapted from Endis (1997)

In this figure it is important to say that the student is the principal element of the distance education system. So, all must be done to meet his or her needs. According to Landin (1997) here are the main characteristics of a student from a distance education system:

 Be of different ages;

 Have different qualification levels;

 Study at home or in any other place;

 Be an adult and worker;

 Have as a secondary the education.

Although the distance education has several potencialities, not all have a suitable profile to this type of teaching. The student must know what he wants, to be able to be motivated for the course he or she wants to take, and the desire to be successful on the distance education. The teacher guides the student, which has a more active role in the training (Web School, 2002).

Teacher – the success of the diatance education depends mostly on the teacher that must have new competences to ensure the distance educator role, among others (Landin, 1997):

 Understand the nature and the philosophy of the distance education;

 Adapt the teaching strategies to give instructions at distance;

 Maintain him/herself updated on the use and knowledge of the new communicating models;

 Involve him/herself on the organization, planning and decisions;

 Evaluate the attitudes and the perceptions of the students at distance.

Support Services – most of the initiatives that a very successful on the distance education basis involve a series of pedagogical and technical support services that include aspects like operation and maintenance of equipments, configuration of software, including also the creation of the didactical material, on the programming aspects, visual project and pedagogic conception, enrollment, logistics, material distribution, acquisition of the didactical material, control of the author´s rights and marks processing, among others (Bastos, 2003).

3.2.2 Models and technologies used

In the Distance Education, there are two models for training (Testa, 2001):

 Sync Model – training component in a real time that promotes the interaction through voice, image and data, among teachers and students in a “virtual classroom”, regardless where they are;

 Assync Model – training component with no possibility for interaction in a real time that provides access to the contents in their multiple supports in an individualized way. In these cases, if there is interaction between teachers and students, this takes place in a recored form through e-mail or discussion forums.

To learn and teach using distance education as a methodology, there are two forms of communication identified namely (Testa, 2001):

 Unidirectional Communication – paper content, study guides, books, radio, television, cassettes, are some of the examples;

 Bidirectional Communication – correspondence in paper, telephone, audioconference, are some of the examples. The bilateral communication has as a major objective to keep the highest degree of motivation on the student, facilitate the learner´s learning, inform pedagogic and technically the student and endow the learner with cognitive capacities that are suitable to the learner´s study progression.

One of the core factors of a distance education system is the choice of support technologies and the way that these technologies are allocated. The curriculum contents are normally distributed to the students in different formats such as, texts, video, audio, informatics and video conference.

The table 3.2 illustrates a summary of the main services, which are currently available for the Distance Education.

    Table 3.2: Main services available for the Distance Education. Adapted from Santos (2000)

For the purpose of this study and taking into consideration the table 3.2, the videotelephone and videoconference are components of special interest for the organization of online sessions. The interaction teacher – student will be ensured through e-mail, discussion forum, newsgroup, mailing list, file transference (FTP), web pages as well as via Internet relay chat.

3.2.3 Advantages and limitations of distance education

According to Aretio (1994) the Distance Education has the advantages that follow:

 Openess – elimination or reduction of access bias to the courses or study levels; diversification and increase of course offer; training opportunities adapted to the current demands, to the people that could not attend the traditional school;

 Flexibility – lack of strictness to space requirements (where to study?), time and lesson observation (when to study?) and rithym (at what learning speed?); good combination of study and work; learner kept in his or her professional, cultural and familiar; training outside the classroom context;

 Permanent staff training – assistance to the demand and aspirations of different groups, through formative activities or not; active learner: developmment of innitiatives, of attitudes, interests, values and educational habits; training for work and overcoming of the cultural level of each student;

 Efficacy – student; center of the learning process and the active subject of the training sees his or her learning rithym respected; practical-theoretical training, related to the student´s experience, in an immediate contact with the professional activity, which is willed to be improved; instructional contents designed by specialists and the use of multimedia resourses; frequent bidirectional communication, ensuring a dynamic and innovative learning;

 Economy – reduction of costs in relation to face to face learning system, by eliminating small groups, by avoiding expenditure of students´ movement from place to place and by avoiding the absence at working place for extra training time, by allowing scale economy, the scale economy overcomes the high initial costs.

Yet and according to Aretio (1994) there are some limitations for Distance Education:

 Limitations in reaching the socialization objective due to lack of interaction between the teacher and the student and among the students themselves;

 Limitations in reaching objectives in the affective/attitude areas as well as the objectives related to the psychomotor area because this can only happen if there is a possibility for a previously established face to face moment for the supervised development of the manipulating skills;

 Empoverishment of a direct experience exchange provided by the personal educational relationship between the teacher and the student;

 The feedback and correction of the possible mistakes may be slower although the new technological means reduce these inconveniences;

 Need for a long term strict planning with the disadvantages that may arise even with the advantage of a rethinking and reflexion;

 Danger of homogeneity of the instructional materials – all learn the same, by the only one instructional package, matched with a few opportunities for dialogue between the teacher and the student – can be avoided and overcome by the design of materials that promote spontaneousness, creativity and student´s ideas expression;

 Except face to face evaluation activities, the results of distance evaluation are less fiable that the face to face results, considering the opportunities of copy or fraud, although these facts can also occur on a face to face model;

 Initial costs are very high for the implementation of distance courses that dilute throughout their application, although there is no doubt in relation to its economy.

However, according to Lobo Neto (2000) the distance education is today an increasing democratic strategy of access to the quality of education, citizen right and society and state duty.

3.3 Historical Evolution of Distance Education

Nunes (2001) states that the starting point of the distance education are the letters written at the beginning of the christian era aimed to disseminate the good news of the Lord, evolving for the invention of the press by Guttemberg, maybe the greater starting point for the dissemination of the written word, as beforehand, all books were copied manually requiring time and money.

Yet, according to Nunes the written messages were part of the first strategy of establishment of a personalized communication when the distance did not allow the interlocutors to meet. From the beginning of the XX century up to the second world war, several experiences were adapted, occassion in which the applied methodologies to the teaching by correspondence better developed, and later on, were heavily influenced by the introduction of the new means of mass communication such as radio that originated very important projects.

The distance education has existed since the end of the XVIII century, with greater evolution since the end of the XIX century when the first correspondence course was created by Sir Isaac Pitman, Correspondence College – United Kingdom (Andrade, 2000). The greater step was given from the middle 60s, with the institutionalization of several actions in the fields of secondary and higher education, starting in Europe (France and England) expanding to other continents. The need for an efficient communication system between the teacher and the student implied the establishment of a direct relationship between the development of the distance education and the advances taking place in the telecommuniacations, in the informatics, of the multimedia and of the Internet (Moore & Kearsley, 1996). The technologies used increased in number, complexity and potentiality, creating new models of distance education (Lima & Capitão 2003).

Taylor (2001) cited by Luzzi (2007) identified four generations of the history of the distance education: the “correspondence model”, the “multimedia model”, the “tele-learning model” and the “flexible learning model”, and points that there is the fifth model that is configured: the “intelligent and flexible learning model”.

The first generation, called “model by correspondence”, on which are identified the first demonstrations of this study model, based mainly on the production and distribution of the printed educational materials, given to the student by the post. A model of higher study flexibility, considering time, space and rithym of study of each person, but with the lack of or null communication among the teachers and the students.

The second generation called “multimedia model”, adds the printed materials to other technologies like, for example: audio and video that improve the presentation of the contents. A model with higher flexibility but with lack or no interactivity.

In the third generation, there is a “tele-learning model”, incorporating the technological resources like audio conference, videoconference and the audiographic transmission, which according to Taylor (2001) loose flexibility and sometimes the quality in the preparation of study materials, but they gain in interactivity.

A fourth generation that the author identifies as the “flexible learning model”, on which all resource materials are added to the interactive multimedia, is characterized by the access of resources through Internet and communication technologies. According to the author, it is a model that presents flexibility, good quality and interaction.

This generation of the distance teaching can be distinguished by its interactivity in the communication processes, which allow access to university resources, resources from other educational and noneducational institutions and the communication among the students, between students and tutors and of course, it is the most used in the present.

According to the author, a fifth generation is being configured in the present. The “intelligent flexible learning model”, an approximation on which people start using multimedia systems online, access to resources by Internet, use of self-response systems through information technology, communication and access to services from instructional portals.

The speed of the technological development that a sixth generation – integrated by the Automatic Virtual Environments, virtual reality systems of multiple projections that articulate sound and image in three dimensions, to take the group of students to dive in a virtual world, generated by computers in a real time – is being developed.

As refered by Santos (2002), the distance education has become an important instrument of the educational policy with universities created for developing activities quite exclusively for distance education, like the Open University, founded in 1969 in the United Kingdom, which enrolled its first student in 1971. This university is a clear example of the distance education teaching, even though the first known institution has been the University of South Africa, in 1946.

So, it is clear that the evolution of the distance education at the beginning of XXI century is entailled to the development of communication, mainly Internet. The new nets of communication can promote at short term the rapid and trustfull access, allowing a greater level of interactivity.

3.4 Concept and characterization of e-learning

Due to these changes, the traditional teaching models present three restrictions (Tachizawa & Andrade, 2003 cited by Lima & Capitão, 2003):

 Time – it is required that all that are involved have to be available at the same time.

 Place – it is required that all that are involved have to be on the same place;

 Scale - the limitations regarding to the number of students that can learn in a classroom, with the teacher´s support.

Meanwhile, as Pimentel and Santos (2003) defend, although these models are not mostly used in the greater majority of cases, there have been innovative approaches to promote teaching via Internet, because of the current facts:

 Rapid production of knowledge and information;

 Infra-structure and Internet functioning;

 Different visions of distance education;

 Changes in the labour market, requiring professional entrepreneur posture;

 Increase in the pursuit of enterprises training;

 Expectations in the reduction of the training costs;

 Need for more flexible study forms.

The same way that the distance education presents several definitions, the e-learning is also defined by several authors. For Pimentel and Santos (2003) the e-learning is a way of giving contents via all types of electronic means including Internet, Intranet, Extranets, virtual classrooms, audio and video cassettes, interactive TV, chat, e-mail, forums, electronic libraries and CD-ROM, for the teaching based on the computers and on the Web.

The definition from American Society For Training & Development of 2002 can be considered sufficiently reaching: “the e-learning covers a set of multiple applications and processes such as the teaching based on the Web, the one based on the computer, virtual classrooms and digital collaboration that includes giving contents via Internet, Intranet/Extranet (LAN/WAN), audio and video recording, radios satellites, interactive TV and CD-ROM”.

For Rosemberg (2001) the e-learning is the use of Internet technologies to give solutions that enlarge knowledge.

According to Carvalho (2005) the e-learning, in its most restrict definition represents the 4th generation of distance education, identifying itself with the learning processes in which the face to face contact between the teacher and the student does not exist. In relation to the previous generation, there were collaborative learning supported by computers environments were introduced, allowing the creation of virtual classrooms and eliminating the traditional isolation of distance education students.

For Caixinha (2005) the e-learning is a set of methodologies and technologies which has as objective to promote the teaching and learning through the use of Internet/Web as a device of:

 Mediation among intervenients (interaction);

 Access to pedagogic resources (contents);

 Access to mechanisms of evaluation (evaluation);

 Access to the functioning of the management processes (management).

On the perspective of the authors mentioned previously, the term e-learning must also identify the learning-teaching processes that are not passible to be accomplished without the technological support, but they co-exist with the face to face activities that are also relevant. That is, when there are learning or evaluation components that can be fulfilled through the same technological support. This model is called blended learning (b-learning).

Blended learning, the teaching practice that combines teaching methods from both face-to-face and online learning, is an established, rapidly growing instructional model that is proving highly effective in helping schools address the challenges of student achievement, limited resources, and the expectations of 21st century learners. Whether it is extending classroom instruction beyond the school day, supporting credit recovery programs, enhancing teacher professional development or delivering enriched learning opportunities for accelerated students, blended learning models are increasingly common practice across the curriculum for students and teachers alike.

Blended learning is implemented in a variety of ways, ranging from models in which curriculum is fully online with face-to-face interaction to models in which face-to-face classroom instruction is integrated with online components that extend learning beyond the classroom or school day. The rapid growth of blended learning has been a catalyst for additional instructional transformation, including:

 Evolving pedagogy in which teachers’ roles include facilitation, student mentoring and differentiating instruction for individual learners,

 Increased flexibility and personalization of students’ learning experiences, and

 Strategic uses of technology as provincies directorates tap the capabilities of the learning management systems to support a wider range of instructional programs.

Educators support online learning because of its unique abilities to provide students with enriched learning experiences, to extend learning beyond the school day, and to support more successful differentiated learning strategies that personalize students’ educational experiences. Additionally, as educators gain more experience with the approaches to and benefits of blended learning, they have discovered that this instructional model helps them increase capacity without commensurate increases in budget or staff.

After the several definitions presented about the e-learning, it can clearly be seen that there are two tendencies on the concept:

 The first, wide, considers that all forms of distance education that use the electronic are included in the concept of e-learning;

 The second, more restricted, understands that the e-learning it is a distance education form that uses Internet and its derivations as a support means.

For the purpose of this study, the e-learning is:

• A form of distance education that uses the Internet and its derivations as the core supports for the creation, distribution, interaction and content administration.

3.4.1 Advantages and disadvantages of the e-learning

As Lemos (2003) defends, before it is considered as a set of technological tools, with pedagogic applications, the e-learning must be understood as an effective contribution for the paradigm change in the learning and teaching process. Meanwhile, the implementation of processes of this nature faces some obstacles that result from acting contexts and of the proper nature of strategies of the distance education, being possible to show the advantages and disadvantages (see Table 3.3):

       Table 3.3: Advantages and disadvantagens of e-learning.

In the section that follows, there is a brief theoretical review of the catalysers and bias that inhibit the e-learning potential.

3.4.2 Catalysers and Bias to e-learning

The appearence and the consequent e-learning development resulted from the factors of the technological, economic, demographic and social nature. According to INOFOR (2003) the catalysers of e-learning are:

 Technological Revolution

 Economy Globalization

 Change in Learning paradigm

 Demographic and social changes

 Professional Training

Although there are known possibilities of e-learning, there are also some obstacles that inhibit the potential of e-learning. Then, to overcome these bias to e-learning, this should be looked at as a national imperative, involving, Institutions of Higher Education, enterprises and the state, in a jointed and integrated mission, aimed to motivating and training the people that belong to age extracts that due to cultural and geographical reasons can be considered info-excluded (INOFOR, 2003).

Dobbs (2002) identifies as the main bias of e-learning the quality of courses, the limitation of band coverage and the standards domain:

 Resources Quality

 Limitation of band coverage

 Standards domain.

The most important problems that are raised start from the defficient implementation, stable contents and less interactivity to cultural factors like accommodation to traditional teaching forms as well as the lack of support from top managers of the organizations.

According to a study conducted by Hussain (2004) on Institutions of Higher Education, the main bias of the e-learning are:

 Lack of a strategic plan for e-learning;

 The e-learning is not felt as a need, but as something that all others are doing;

 Lack of experience in projects of e-learning (leadership and execution);

 Insufficient financial investments to cover all components of e-learning project.

According to Litto (2001), European benchmarks and results of the enquiry to enterprises are coincidents in the origin of shackles to development of e-learning:

 Teaching “without face”;

 Organizational culture;

 Lack of information and teacher support;

 High material costs and their development;

 High time consuming for the preparation of materials and activities;

 Lack of technological assistance;

 Resistence to change by teachers and students.

According to a study from INOFOR (2003) the face to face training seems to constitute a model that responds to the major formative needs of the organizations or at least those needs that the organizations assume as priority. The organizational culture also takes greater importance probably being one of the main conditioners of formative needs of the organizations. As consequence, it appears leading the battery of obstacles to implementation of e-learning, the perception that the investment in a project like this does not stand itself as priority.

3.4.3 The e-learning and the Institutions of Higher Education

According to Figueiredo (2000) some years ago, it was possible to an Institution of Higher Education ignore all competition forms and give a massive education. Like what happened in many enterprises of the same period, could allow offering different quality services and sometimes-doubtful thinking that lacked alternatives could not complain and look for options.

For Lemos (2003) currently this is no longer possible and the Institutions of Higher Education must be updated towards the changes demanded by the globalization and above all to respond to the impositions of the labour market that seeks for pro-active professionals with a need of a permanent training.

In fact, the local community of specialised knowledge that constituted an Institution of Higher Education, suddenly opened itself to the world and became part of a global community of specialists linked among them by Internet, by telephone, by fax and by meetings and conferences of several types (Figueiredo, 2000).

According to Gouveia and Gomes (2004) the acquired experience and the opportunities for development currently provided by incentives such as a e-University and pressures like doption of Bolonha and the world negative demographic increase, which has been having an impact in the Institutions of Higher Education orientation for the adoption of distance education or face to face electronic support practices, taken as a requirement for the modern higher education and suitable for the information society.

3.4.3.1 SWOT analysis of e-learning in Institutions of Higher Education

The SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis is an instrument used in the design of a strategy. It is not enough identifying the objectives and determine from them, the critical factors that will determine the solution to adopt. It is also important to recognize the situation in which the institution is, be it internally (strengths and weaknesses), be it in relation to the outside (opportunities and threats).

          Table 3.4: SWOT analysis of e-learning in IES. Proper authory

According to Figueiredo (2000) this analysis must be conducted with greater objectivity and hardness, namely with regard to the identification of weaknesses that shoud serve as objective indicators in areas where later intervention must be centered. The process must be dynamic trying to make the fullest use of the strengths, concentrating all efforts to overcome all weaknesses, exploring whenever possible the opportunities and transforming the threats into opportunities.

In terms of objectives, the Institutions of Higher Education will (Caixinha, 2005; Cantoni et al., 2003):

 Improve the teaching quality;

 Increase the accessibility and flexibility of the curriculum;

 Allow technological experience on the students;

 Give support to users (contents, services and training);

 Follow the technological tendency verified on;

 Develop partnerships with other institutions;

 Develop new products;

 Implement a management quality system used in e-learning;

 Reduce costs.

The e-learning allows flexibility, rationalizes resources (financial and human) and enlarges the geographical teaching coverage. However, this system can only be seen as advantagious if joined with the arguments mentioned, if there are similar or better pedagogical results compared with the face to face teaching (Cantoni et al., 2003).

3.5 Concept and characterization of video-conference

From the 80s there has been a development of teaching systems supported by computers. Due to evolution of this area, today there are highly sophisticated systems. Since the mid 80 the microcomputers, linked to several technologies for storing and audio reading and digitated images has been offering integrated environments known as multimedia. Among the existing multimedia systems used in education, there is a videoconference.

Video-conference

According to Cruz and Barcia (2000) the video conference is a technology that allows that distant groups, situated in two or more places geographically different, communicate in a “face to face”, through audio signals and video, recreating at distance, the meeting conditions among people.

The firsst prototype of the videophone, known as “father” of videoconference was shown in public in 1964, whereby the first interactive transmission in two ways (audio and video), happened in 1967 between Nova York and Los Angelos. At that time it could not be sold because of its high cost and lack of a suitable transmission infrastructure. In the 80s, with the development of algorithymical comprehensive technology, the video conference systems could evolve, as the signals used more narrow lines without losing quality of images. According to Keegan (1995) cited by Cruz (2001) the speed of increase in the use of video conference was a combination in the improvement of technology of video comprehension with the acceptance of the international telecommunications standards and a rapid fall of costs.

For Cruz (2001) a videoconference digital system consists in a video camera, a codifier/decodifier of digital signals (CODEC), a TV monitor and an audio unity. The video CODEC and the audio unity converted the analogical signals of audio and video for video camera into a digital format. This digital data needs also to be compressed to be able to be sent through a digital communicating link to other machine with compatible equipment. The videoconference systems require connections between two or more machines that codify and decodify the signals in a direct relationship between the transmission speed and the quality of image. The band size used for transmitting the video image controls the solution and the image movements. The higher the speed/quality of data, better the quality of image and sound received and transmitted.

In specialized literature, the recommendation for the use as interface in the learning and teaching processes is that of working with the high transmission rates among equipments, 128 or 384 Kbps , as they allow a quality of television image close to that we are used to. On the television, the images get the speed of thirty frames per second. In the videoconference system, transmitted at 384 Kbps, is able to give an image around 26 to 28 frames per second.

The videoconference equipments can be divided in two types: of the table or room. The first is for individual use, installed on a microcomputer. Uses telephone lines for the transmission what makes it not have a good quality. The videoconference is a more broadcasted by having a more powerful processing. It can be installed in more varied size rooms according to the needs and function, allows an individual communication, but it is useful by possibilitating meetings or lessons to groups of varied sizes. The transmissions can occur between two rooms (point by point) or several (multipoint). It is in this way that the system appears as a greater potentiality for the learning and teaching process, research and distance education.

3.6 Lessons learned

With the design of this chapter, the researcher communicates his approach and his critique to the authors that throughout the decades have been dealing with the themes that served to support the understanding of the object of the study of this investigation. The intention was to establish, whenever possible, a dialogue with the authors instead of a pure appropriation of his or her ideas and work. The researcher proposed him/herself to learn with them through a dialogue on which his knowledge could also be present. It was not all by casuality that the review of literature was made in an important moment of construction of theoretical bases that sustain the investigation problem, the examination of the reality and the interpretation of the results of the empirical study.

Throughout this chapter, it was possible to observe on a comparative analisys the definitions of distance education, which, various elements of different degrees are part of conceptual universe of this teaching model. But, on the researcher´s perspective, these elements do not help to characterize the distance education – maybe in some historical moments, these elements might have served for the conceptualization, but it must be understood that, in the current society, many of them are losing signification.

In this way, for the effect of this study, based on the discussion above mentioned and trying to synthesize the several concepts presented, the researcher adopts the concept that follows for the distance education:

• It is a teaching form, implemented by an educational organization, in which the teachers and the students meet while they are physically separated, needing the mediation of some type of technology to establish communication among them.

In this context, this study adopts the tridimensional theory defended by John Verduin and Thomas Clark. This theoretical model contemplates as much as the adult education preconized by Moore and Garrison as it enlarges the fulfillment of distance education practices. Their theory lays on the dialogue concepts, structure and autonomy learning proposed by Moore as well as on the bi-directional communication attributes and the separation mister-learner proposed by Keegan. The theoretical base proposed by Moore is however amplified in these authors, defining three specific theoretical dimensions:

 Existence of a dialogue/support from the mister;

 Existence of a structure/specialization of learning/teaching process;

 Existence of a competence/autonomy of the learner.

It can be concluded that the distance education is not a category opposed to face-to-face education, as many definitions present. It could have been within a historical moment in the light of the reality of some historical period but now, it is no longer. The world has changed and the face-to-face education is also changing adapting itself to the society of information and knowledge. This without considering that both models of education share philosophical, epistemological, pedagogic, didactical, administrative, organizational bases, among others, that configurates within the same educational logics and not as opposite poles or categories mutually excluding.

It is in this context of the formulated problem that the researcher defends the thesis that the distance education must not be considered as an alternative or compensatory method of the face-to-face education, but as an opportunity for rethinking education as a whole.

However, the need for an efficient communication system between the teacher and the student implied the establishment of a direct relationship between the distance education and the advances that have taken place in the telecommunications, in the informatics, of multimedia and Internet (Moore & Kearsley, 1996). The technologies used increased in number, complexity and potenciality, creating new models of distance education (Lima & Capitão 2003).

It is in this way that Taylor (2001) cited by Luzzi (2007) identifies four generations in the history of distance education: the “model by correspondence”, the “multimedia model”, the “tele-learning model” and the “flexible learning model” and points that there is a fifth being configurated: the “intelligent and flexible learning model”.

On the other side, in the distance education, there can be distinguished two training models (Testa, 2001):

 Sync Model – Training component in real time that promotes interaction through sound, image and data, between teachers and students in a “virtual classroom”, regardless where they are;

 Assync Model – training component with no possibility for interaction in real time provides access to the contents in their multiple supports in an individualized way. In these cases, if there is interaction between teachers and students, this happens in delayed through e-mail or discussion forums.

To learn and teach using as methodology the distance education, there are two communication forms identified (Testa, 2001):

 Unidirectional Communication – paper contents, study guides, books, radio, television, cassettes, are some of the examples;

 Bidirectional Communication – correspondence in paper, telephone, audioconference, are some of the examples. The bilateral communication has as its main objectives keep the higher degree of motivation on the student, facilitate his/her learning, inform the student pegagogic and technically and give cognitive skills that are suitable to his/her progression in the materials of study.

One the most important factors of a distance education system is the choice of support technologies and the way it is made available. The curriculum contents are normally distributed to the students in different formats, being one of them an electronic one, which leads e-learning.

At the same time that the distance education presents several definitions, the concept e-learning is also discussed by several authors. From the discussion held on the theorectical referential, the attemp has been to look for a concept that is more suitable for the aims of this work.

In this way, for the purposes of this study, the e-learning is:

• The way the distance education uses the Internet and its derivations has main supports for the creation, distribution, interaction and content administration.

In this way, there has been a wider set of expected outcomes for an initiative of the adoption of a platform of e-learning: improvement of the quality of teaching, increase of productivity of the teachers, development of the organization, increase in the number of students/diversification of public and reinforcement of the institutional image.