Impacting factors on loyalty to Distance Education courses - a case study in an undergraduate program in business administration

• Grant number: 16/17407-4
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: March 01, 2017
• End date: February 28, 2019
• 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
• City of the host institution: São Paulo

Abstract

Distance education (DE) in Brazilian higher education level has been growing since the early 2000. This educational method has been becoming more popular, due to its geographic and space flexibility as well as for its potential to take education to remote areas and, therefore, to people who would not otherwise be able to access a traditional face-to-face institution. The upward trajectory of this teaching modality leads to an increase in competition in the educational market, which enhances the need to assess results of these initiatives.This study is considered to identify the factors that determine the loyalty of students who attend undergraduate courses of Business Administration in DE modality. Through the case study method, a Brazilian higher education institution that is providing a Business Administration course in DE mode for at least one year will be selected. Under these conditions, students are able to evaluate the course as well as their willingness to complete it.A qualitative research will be carried out with the coordination of this distance education course and other research of quantitative character, with approaching of the students of that course. 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 loyalty of the student to the course, being it defined as the willingness to complete it and the possibility of recommending DE courses to third parties. (AU)