Abstract:

Since June 2011 research has been carried out about the local centers which are part of the system of local support of the Open University of Brazil (UAB), under the leadership of the research group "Teacher training and new information and communication technologies", linked to the Universidade Federal Fluminense and Universidade Estadual de Londrina. This study followed about 70 of these local center coordinators from the Northern, Northeastern and Southern region. The research was conducted to help identify their career profiles, assist in analyzing the official systems of evaluation and suggest optimization procedures to these evaluation processes. First, their management and career profiles were highlighted through interviews. Then, by means of crossed visits, where each coordinator (in regional pairs) conducted a presential but simulated mutual evaluation. The whole process was incremented via Moodle. Describing this collaborative effort, producing a knowledge regarding the Open University system in Brazil, but especially exploring new research methodologies, such as netnography is our intention in this presentation. Thus, it is necessary to emphasize that the research was extended by a virtual environment specially developed for this purpose. The environment followed the parameters of the most common virtual classrooms of UAB, set in the Moodle platform. It was assumed that due to this familiarity, the coordinators of local centers would have familiarity with the system; however, this result was not found. The difficulties of access and transit, and the reproduction of recurring discourse about education and public policy provided insight into professional training occurs in Brazil. By examining this "black-box" we hope therefore to highlight and measure the effectiveness of programs such as the Open University of Brazil.

Keywords:

Open University of Brazil, Information and communication technologies, Teacher training, Cross visits.