Abstract:

This study presents results about e-learning courses in the project CECEMCA, a center for teachers of continuous formation, a partnership between UNESP and the Education Ministry of Education from Brazil, Four courses were developed in 2009: "Introduction to Cartography", “Environmental and Climate Change - Thinking a new paradigm for a sustainable green planet", "Remote Sensing in Studies of Environment" and "Methodological Alternatives for Inclusive Classes: Experiences with Visual and Hearing Disabilities". These courses were offered in TelEduc e-learning plataform, available at the site: http://teleduc.rc.unesp.br and had 463 teachers certificated. The courses were offered by CECEMCA (Center for Continuous Education in Mathematics Education, Science and Environmental Studies), from the University of the State of São Paulo, Rio Claro - SP. Each course was organized in 5 modules which were available to the participants during one week and it was necessary to prepare some programmed activities to follow to the next module. The time required for the didactic activities was 4 weeks, and to the conclusion of the course was 6 weeks. The didactic material was composed of slides in Power point format (PPT), containing the subject of the lesson; supplementary reading texts; material of support from the teachers; suggestions for sites, videos, reports, among others and activities that should be developed by the student. At the end of the course, each student prepared a video or a report with the registration of the experience obtained during the course and also, was invited to answer an evaluation questionnaire of the course. The course "Introduction to Cartography" had 3 classes of students and total of students in the course was 84 (100%). In this case, 57 (68%) completed the course with more than 80% of frequency and 27 (32%) were not absente. The course: "Remote Sensing in studies of the Environment", included the preparing of 3 classes, one with 40 members, one with 38 and other with 25 students. The total number of teachers presented in the course was 103 (100%), among them, 80 (78%) completed the course with more than 80% frequency and 23 (22%) did not complete the course. In the course "Environment and climate change, 7 groups were formed with 40 students each. The total number of accepted inscriptions was 280 (100%) and 258 of them (92%) completed the course with more than 80% frequency and 22 (8%) did not complete it. In the course "Methodological Alternatives for Inclusive Classes: Experiences with Visual Impairment and Hearing, 3 groups, were certified, with 77 inscriptions of teachers (100%) from different municipalities. In the end only 9 teachers have not completed the course (12%), being 68 (88%) the total number of teachers certification. Overall, there were not detected significant difficulties that could have hindered the smooth around the courses. The Platform TelEduc was been flexible and shown to be feasible and practical to be used, meeting the needs of students and tutors. Therefore, these e-learning courses achieved their goal preparing teachers for Basic Studies, in government public and private education in various regions of Brazil. These kind of learning permits to update the framework and the concepts in focus and provides the exchange of teaching experience, contributing for the expansion of practical application in the classroom.

Keywords:

e-learning, continuous education, teachers, TelEduc, CECEMCA, Rio Claro (SP).