Fatores críticos de sucesso na contenção da evasão no ensino superior a distância

Abstract

Distance education has stood out in recent years as the fastest growing teaching modality in Brazil. However, studies show that evasion in distance education has reached worrying numbers, mainly due to the negative impacts it causes, whether in the economic sphere, influencing the efficiency and performance of Higher Education Institutions - HEIs, or in the social sphere, since the exclusion of individuals in the school environment inhibits their ascension to better job opportunities, affecting their quality of life. In this context, the present study aims to identify which are the critical success factors that determine the containment of evasion in distance higher education. In order to reach this general objective, the study was based on three stages, the first being an international literature review with a view to identifying the main causes of evasion in distance education, as well as proposing a “radar framework” model, based on in the identified causes, the second stage comprising a validation of the causes identified in the previous stage, with Brazilian specialists and, in the third stage, an applied study that can assess which causes of evasion in distance education (identified in the second stage) fit as critical factors of success, both from the perspective of HEI managers and dropout students, discussing the points of convergence and divergence in the opinion of these participants. The research is characterized as descriptive in nature with a mixed approach (quantitative and qualitative), carried out through the collection of secondary data in the specialized literature, use of the Delphi technique, collection of primary data through survey and in-depth interviews. The results of the first stage indicate that evasion in higher education distance education courses is the result of a combination of endogenous and exogenous factors, which may or may not be interrelated. The most common causes identified are associated with lack of time to study, difficulty reconciling academic and professional life, financial restrictions, cognitive factors, inefficiency of pedagogical didactic projects and tensions in the interrelationship between students and teachers/tutors. The proposal of the radar framework considered the categorization of factors into eight dimensions: personal/interpersonal, socioeconomic, cognitive, vocational, technological, complementary activities, structural and didactic pedagogical. The results of the second stage showed that all the causes/factors and their classifications (dimension and category), as well as the Framework proposed by the researcher, were validated by the experts, which demonstrates that there is a consensual alignment on the causes of greatest impact in the process of evasion in distance learning modality. The results of the third stage showed that there is a consensus between former students (dropouts) and HEI managers regarding the main causes that contribute to evasion in distance education, highlighting: work reasons, lack of time, myth that distance education is easier than face-to-face teaching and lack of synchronous interaction between students and HEIs. In this context, it is inferred that the critical success factors for the containment of evasion in distance education are mostly associated with exogenous causes, in particular: the student's ability to manage their time, conditions for the student to reconcile work and study, coherent student profile with the distance education modality and the student's sense of belonging. It is essential for HEIs, among other actions, to adopt strategies that can improve their students' sense of organization and time management, in addition to intensifying, at an early stage, awareness of the challenges and peculiarities of distance education. In short, focus on predictive actions.