A qualidade nos cursos de bacharelado em Administração a distância: um estudo comparativo nas principais IES privadas do Brasil

Abstract

The objective of this thesis was to research the quality of online undergraduate programs in Administration offered by the major private Institutions of Higher Education (IHE) in Brazil, taking into consideration the growing demands in the workplace and the need for qualified professionals to meet these demands. The research study was designed to respond to two questions. 1) What is the notion of quality in Distance Education as identified in online undergraduate programs in Administration? 2) How is quality defined by administrators of the online undergraduate programs in Administration from the major private IHE in Brazil? In order to respond to the first question, a study was performed on the theoretical literature; the history of Distance Education in Brazil and other countries; the growth of Distance Education between 2000 and 2009; the theories and pedagogic approaches to Distance Education; the curriculum content; the history of the Administration profession; and Brazilian legislation pertaining to Distance Education. In order to respond to the second question, seven semi structured interviews were conducted with administrators from the major private IHE which offer online undergraduate programs in Administration in Brazil. Refinement of the results was obtained through an analysis of the interview content using the software, ATLAS TI. The results show that, firstly, the notion of quality in Distance Education is still based on a Taylorist point of view, inappropriate to more contemporary conceptualizations of the term which focus on the quality of process rather than on results. Secondly, for the IHE administrators, quality in Distance Education represents a subjective perception. The administrators have a pre-defined opinion of what constitutes quality in the Distance Education courses they offer, but they associate quality to the results. Noteworthy is that the perspective of the administrators is no different than that found in the literature on quality in Distance Education or in the evaluations proposed by the Ministry of Education