Critical factors in perceived quality on distance education - a multi-cases study in undergraduate courses of business administration from the Open University of Brazil

• Grant number: 11/05252-2
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: July 01, 2011
• End date: June 30, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Administration - Administration of Specific Sectors
• Principal Investigator: Maria Aparecida Gouvêa
• Grantee: Maria Aparecida Gouvêa
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Economia, Administração e Contabilidade (FEA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This study aims to identify the fundamental aspects in the evaluation of quality in distance education in a pilot under-graduate course of Distance Business Administration from the Open University of Brazil, which is a system created by the Ministry of Education, which comes to articulate public higher education institutions which already exist, to offering distance courses.The multi-cases method will be used, focusing on five Brazilian colleges distributed in the regions of Brazil. These institutions provide Distance Education (DE) courses that are already in progress for at least one year. In these circumstances, students are able to evaluate the course as well as their willingness to complete it.Two stages of research will be developed: the first one, of qualitative nature, carried out with the coordinators of the distance courses and the second one, of quantitative nature, with the students of these courses. The collected data will be analyzed by means of qualitative techniques, as analysis of content and quantitative techniques, as descriptive analysis and multivariate tools.It is expected that lines of action can be drawn through the results of this study in order to improve the degrees of perceived quality by students of DE, strengthening consequently this teaching modality. (AU)