Gestão da informação sobre evasão na educação a distância

Abstract

This doctoral thesis focuses on evasion in distance higher education and addresses the information on evasion from the perspective of data management so that the challenge of student dropout in distance learning may be overcome. The research methodology combines qualitative and quantitative approaches and makes use of bibliographical and autobiographical sources, with the author being a manager of a distance learning higher education course. The data obtained from both documentary and bibliographical research provided the foundation for creating an instrument intended to be a legacy of this study for the field of distance education. The significance of this research lies in its treatment of a topic that has been reduced to mere numeric data by evidencing the mechanisms through which Information Management can impact student dropout in public distance education. The following questions were raised: How does information management use indicators? Would the production of data and statistics be enough to understand the dropout phenomenon? What is the role of information management? The originality in the data systematization allowed for the creation of indicators to analyze the dropout phenomenon. The indices related to evasion produced by federal agencies were identified, and information about student dropout in distance higher education was tracked. The general goal of this thesis was to use the concept of information management and the data produced on public distance higher education to create an instrument for academic management and student control, monitoring and evasion management. We sought to corroborate the assumption that information management provides elements for the development of tools aimed at student support, monitoring, counseling and human care. As a product of this thesis, a pilot tool was developed to manage the foundations for assessing the status of regularly enrolled distance education students who are nonetheless at risk of dropping out, thereby ultimately aiming at preventing student dropout. The investigation thus generated scope for further research on the phenomenon of student evasion in public higher education, which proved to be more than a mere act of dropping out of courses and can be prevented through information management.