Student Permanence in Distance Learning Pedagogy Courses: A Study From the Open University of Brazil

Abstract

Distance Education (DE) is growing rapidly in Brazil and nowadays it comprises more than a third of all enrollments in undergraduate programs (BRASIL, 2022a). However, the high dropout rates put pressure on Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to define strategies to promote the permanence of their students until graduation. In this sense, this research was structured from the need to look at the institutions and to evaluate the way they are committed to the permanence of the students in distance learning. This research aims to identify and analyze how the HEIs affiliated with the Open University of Brazil (UAB) promote the permanence of students in the Pedagogy (teacher training) distance learning programs. For this purpose, eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with coordinators of six different HEIs, and institutional documents were analyzed. Both the understanding of the managers’ statements and the analysis of the documents emphasized that the institutions have different levels of commitment to the consolidation of distance education, which reflects directly on their performance to mitigate the dropout of students. Based on the identification of weaknesses of the programs, as well as on the good practices referred to in the literature, guidelines were presented that aim to promote the permanence of students in the contexts investigated.