PROJETO DE EDUCAÇÃO SUPERIOR A DISTÂNCIA NA ÁREA DA INFORMÁTICA

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PROJETO DE EDUCAÇÃO SUPERIOR A DISTÂNCIA NA ÁREA DA INFORMÁTICA

04/2005 186-TC-B3

Mauro Faccioni Filho

UNISUL – Universidade do Sul de Santa Catarina faccioni@unisul.br

Categoria B – Conteúdos e Habilidades Setor Educacional 3 – Educação Universitária

Natureza do Trabalho B – Descrição de Projeto em Andamento.

Resumo – Essa é uma experiência de curso de área técnica, focada em requisitos de mercado e em expectativas de demanda. Novos cursos de graduação, aplicados às necessidades industriais e em novas tecnologias, com duração limitada a 2 ou 3 anos, estão na base de iniciativas variadas voltadas à graduação no Brasil, diferentes daqueles cursos já tradicionais e que se propõem à formação acadêmica para carreiras conhecidas. Este artigo apresenta a experiência de curso de graduação à distância na área de informática, com uma nova visão de ensino de engenharia e computação, a qual está inserida numa matriz que compreende cinco módulos semestrais e cinco áreas de conhecimento.

Palavras-chave – Educação a distância, informática, graduação.

Abstract – A new experience in computer science, engineering and related technological courses is under development in Brazil. This experience is focused on market requirements and expected demands. Therefore new courses are under development and applied to industrial needs and new technologies, and their entire process is compressed in 2-3 years, depending on the area. Besides this approach, traditional courses remain as academic propositions and attend regular careers. The paper presents a course in Web Programming, using distance learning and a new vision in engineering teaching, which is within a framework showed as a matrix divided into five different modules and five knowledge areas of interest.

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INTRODUCTION

According to Vianney et al (2003) the distance learning in Brazil began in 1904 with private institutions using post for professional education. But only on the 1990s the Brazilian government published a rule recognizing the distance learning as a regular way to provide education in a formal basis (see LDB, 1996). In 1997 the Ministry of Education created specialised groups to coordinate and analyse the launching of new courses, and after that some universities prepared themselves for this educational activity (see Hanna, 1998, and the university movement all around the world to reach this new era). The first undergraduate courses in Brazil appeared in 1994, and the focus was mainly on topics as business management and pedagogic threads. On one hand a lack of management was perceived everywhere, and managers needed to be up-to-date but without stopping work to study. And on the other hand the government education rule (LDB, 1996) obliged a recycling for all teachers on basic education, opening opportunity for these specific courses.

Brazil is a huge country with basic structural problems. Despite its recent industrial development, the industry is mainly focused on mineral and agricultural related issues. High technology is growing quickly but not in the same pace as at Asian nations, which some decades ago concentrated on specialized education and assets for this purpose. With no laboratories, no protection rules, no research and no venture capital, Brazilian hardware firms were not competitive on a global market.

However, the evolution of software capabilities and the explosion of internet and communications changed this scenario. An official survey from Brazilian government (Takahashi, 2000) showed that the emergence of information society is a challenge and an opportunity for all countries. To transform these opportunities into real economic and social development, that survey, called

“Green Book”, appointed to several priorities:

• intensive use of e-commerce;

• promote small and medium size enterprises;

• foster technological entrepreneurship;

• digital access for all;

• professional and continuous education;

• add value to contents and cultural identity;

• special rules for the virtual world;

• applied research and development;

• projects sustainability;

• infra-structure and integration;

• Latin America collaboration.

The same survey (Takahashi, 2000) paid attention to education and knowledge generation, suggesting new curricula for technological courses. Traditional ones spend about ten years from undergraduate to doctorate, more time than an information technology occasionally survives. A more compact and market

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oriented curriculum is an imperative need, also showed in the work of Lindoso (2000), another Brazilian study about information technology professional education.

The fast rise of the internet has impacted on education with the launching of e- learning tools. First of all this impact was seen as a new business opportunity and several tools were created everywhere. However, like the market digital bubble, its aura has been vanishing as educators see that the revolution is not on the technological media, but on processes and collaborative webs. Samuel (2004) presented a critical look at one of the major public investments on e- learning approach at United Kingdom, showing that the millionaire focus on the e-learning platform had failed to attract students worldwide. Paul Leng, from University of Liverpool and cited in Samuel (2004), says “e-learning course developers need to stop concentrating on IT and start thinking about their users”.

Paying attention on this we have created a new course in Web Design and Programming, using distance learning and a new vision in engineering teaching, which is explained in this paper.

COURSE DEVELOPMENT

The Web Programming course was designed during 2004 and launched in the end of that year (see WDP, 2004) obtaining more than one hundred and a half subscriptions for the first class, with students from all over the country, but especially from southeast and south, where the presence meetings must occur for exams. These meetings are obligatory and occur at each two months. Next classes expect to obtain two or three hundred subscriptions based on the launching of new meeting points at country’s northeast.

Technological Media

The educational approach takes advantage of printing materials and internet.

Printing materials are books prepared especially for this purpose, and the main idea is that students must learn, if they want, absolutely all the matter just from the text. Thinking this way the text is written as a dialog between the professor and the student, and all possible doubts must appear in the form of questions, quizzes, explanations and examples. Of course it is not possible to reach all doubts a priori, and then an internet environment comes to help and creates a real online dialog, where other examples and questions flourish.

Despite the importance of information technologies nowadays, the running of the course is not IT focused as the majority, which prefer to be called “e- learning” than “distance-learning”. The difference is that our course uses e- learning as a tool for education improvement, helping the other tools and specifically giving to the professor a way to get in touch with students. Practical approach instead of theoretical one is the principle, and then internet takes a

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fundamental role, with exercises that uses the environment as a special laboratory. Not all kinds of courses can use it this way, but for “Web Design and Programming” the alliance is exact.

Public

Distance learning gives a chance for students who do not have free agenda or are not near a university campus. Therefore the public for the Web Programming distance learning course was composed by:

• Workers from information technology companies, or from IT departments of industries, who want to enhance their capabilities but have no time/money to retire to follow a regular undergraduate course;

• Graduated students who had obtained a theoretical and not market oriented degree;

• Persons who live far away from technological centres and want to develop new skills;

• Entrepreneur individuals pursuing the construction of hi-tech start-ups.

The course framework

Figure 1 shows the whole course within a framework. Five areas of knowledge are divided in five modules of learning. Despite of the technical needs of a course like this, emphasis on relationship, communication and management is balancing the technological approach.

On the framework the columns represent the fundamental components for a student to have a specific and simultaneously a broad comprehension of its future profession. On one hand there are very technical disciplines, and on the other hand there are disciplines focused on “relationship”, business management and strategies. All disciplines are convergent and have in sight just one point: a strong and applicable technological knowledge.

Column disciplines are within a technical area and are related either to the following ones or the horizontal multidisciplinary ones.

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Programming technologies Telecommunication

infra-structure Art and lay-

out Business &

management Communication

Module 1Module 2Module 3Module 4Module 5

Programming logic I

Database I Object oriented

programming Introduction to

Internet

Computer network I

Data networks security Web visual

communication

Design and cartoons

Multimedia E-commerce and

marketing Group and project

management

Commercial relations Entrepreneurship

and strategy Reading and text

writing

Hypertext Technical

English

Graphic design introduction

Database II

WEB Project I

Programming languages I

WEB Project II

Computer network II

Programming logic II

Programming languages II

Programming languages III

Figure 1 – Framework

Each module is a period of six months, and on the end of each one the student must demonstrate competencies to pass to the following module. Module 1, showed at figure 2, prepares the novice exhibiting an overview of internet, demonstrating its opportunities and weaknesses, and how it can conduct for new jobs and new businesses. Communication has also an emphasis, especially in English language for non-English speakers, as is the case.

out Business &

Module 1

Programming logic I Introduction to

Internet Reading and text

writing

Technical English

Graphic design introduction

Programming logic II

Figure 2 – Disciplines from module 1.

Module 2 (figure 3) completes the basic instruction on programming and begins

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with a management approach, showing that to be successful the person must be capable to work in groups and to pursue specific business strategies. Also an important issue is located in this module, to prepare designers and programmers on visual communication. User interface and correlated matters oriented to facilitate usability are sometimes not well understood by engineers, and must be on sight.

out Business &

Module 2 Object oriented

programming

Web visual communication Group and project

management Entrepreneurship

and strategy

Figure 3 – Module 3.

Modules 3 and 4 (figures 4 and 5) run the course second year and go to more specific areas, specially the technical ones. Database, computer networks and programming languages are distributed within the modules and in the module four is introduced a different discipline, which will integrate the knowledge developed until this point: “Web Project I”. It is a practical project to be created and developed, when the main purpose is to use what was learnt before and apply it for a real world project, preferably an application on the company or job where the student is currently working.

out Business &

Module 3

Database I

Computer network I Hypertext

Database II

Computer network II

Figure 4 – Module 3

out Business &

Module 4

Design and cartoons

WEB Project I

Programming languages I Programming

languages II

Figure 5 – Module 4

The final of the process occur at module 5 (see figure 6) when more complex matters, like multimedia and data security, are presented besides an emphasis

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on commerce and marketing. A second Web Project discipline comes to close the course and to join all the knowledge presented and discussed all over the five semesters.

out Business &

Module 5

Data networks security Multimedia

E-commerce and marketing

Commercial relations

WEB Project II Programming

languages III

Figure 6 – Module 5.

CONCLUSIONS

In some areas of technological knowledge the use of distance learning process could change the paradigms of industrial and economic growing, especially in large countries like Brazil, which are in developing regions of the world but must compete on a global market as well. Software is one of these areas, and the fast development of India and China in this matter is a proof.

However only a technical educational approach is not enough. Competencies on commerce, marketing, entrepreneurship and communications are essential.

Taking these ideas into account and focusing on the internet market, a new distance learning course was created and is presented in this paper. The first classes are running with more than one hundred students from all over the country. The course main aspects and beneficial are:

• Up-to date technological contents with a professional focus;

• Distance learning approach that permits students engagement from different parts of the country;

• Development of virtual and cooperative groups of study, research and work;

• Just thirty months for the whole course, which permits the individual to be on pace with market technological issues;

• Possibility for the student to be working during the course time;

• An entrepreneurship attitude;

• A degree certificate, which allows the student to continue on post- graduate courses.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

I would like to acknowledge the support of João Vianney and Jucimara Roeler to the development of this work, and Dr. Golberi Ferreira, who launched some of the original ideas I have been developed here. Their continuous and valuable discussions were fundamental. I would also to thank Unisul and all other

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colleagues working in the distance learning department, for their important enthusiasm and collaboration.

REFERENCES

Hanna, D. E. (1998). Higher Education in an Era of Digital Competition:

Emerging Organizational Models. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 2:1, Sloan Consortium (at http://www.sloan- c.org/publications/jaln/v2n1/index.asp).

LDB - Lei 9.394 (1996). Lei das diretrizes e bases da educação nacional brasileira. Presidência da República do Brasil (at www.mec.gov.br).

Lindoso, B. M. org. (2000). Referenciais curriculares nacionais da educação profissional de nível técnico: Informática. Ministério da Educação, Brasília (at www.mec.gov.br).

Samuel, M. (2004). Public sector e-learning is back in the spotlight. Computing.

(at http://www.computing.co.uk/news/1157104)

Takahashi, T. org. (2000). Sociedade da Informação no Brasil – Livro Verde

“Green Book”. Ministério da Ciência e Tecnologia, Brasília.

Vianney, J., P. L. Torres and E. F. Silva (2003). A universidade virtual no Brasil.

Editora UNISUL and IESALC-UNESCO, Tubarão/SC/Brasil.

WDP – Curso Superior de Tecnologia em Web Design e Programação (2004).

Unisul, Universidade do Sul de Santa Catarina, www.virtual.unisul.br.