Abstract:

The evasion phenomenon is considered one of Education's main concerns in many countries, and always a target to be tackled or an index to be reduced. In Brazil, a series of policies were already taken to avoid evasion in education, such as the National System for the Evaluation of Higher Education, SINAES (BRASIL, 2004), the Restructuring and Expansion Plans for Federal Universities - REUNI (BRASIL, 2007), and the National Student Assistance Plan - PNAES (BRASIL, 2010). These policies help, mostly in higher education, to maintain the students on the programs, but the paths of evasion are still a concern. Though commitment is more associated with the relation employer/enterprise, this concept may present variations that allows us to connect it to education, as well as to the reasons that determine the permanency or the exit of students from a program or institution. This paper aims to understand the aspects of the student's commitment with a course of post-graduation in professional education offered online by a public institution in Brazil. To collect the data, a multi-method approach was used, based on a questionnaire online whose responses were analyzed with lexicometry, supported by Iramuteq Software. 30 students were interviewed and the analysis presented six clusters: Willingness to Act, Identification with the course, performance, Course Elements and Contributions, Essential Elements in Distance Learning and Challenges that interfere in their choice to remain or to abandon the course in focus. The analysis helps to understand what justifies the student’s commitment with the course, and their positive and negative perception of the experience. The results indicate that students' commitment is influenced by the alignment of the course content with their professional experiences. Furthermore, effective communication and continuous feedback between teachers, tutors, and students are fundamental to maintain student engagement. However, the results also highlight the importance of improving the dialogic capacity of the course to avoid demotivation and reduction of commitment over time.

Keywords:

Evasion, Commitment, Distance Education.