The announcement of the covid-19 pandemic in March 2020 brought several social transformations. With restrictions on mobility and social contact, the essential sectors had to undergo adaptations. One of the most significant occurred in education, which began to adopt the distance education model (EAD) in practically all types of education, from basic training to master’s and doctorate degrees.
Despite performing, on average, worse than face-to-face courses, distance courses offer viable teaching options for students who need to work and study at the same time and for people who need to compartmentalize or make study hours more flexible.
“EAD fits perfectly as a solution to the current reality due to its flexibility, the different means of transmission of content (videos, texts, applications, games), the existing communication channels, in addition to benefiting different types of learning”, highlighted Fábia Kátia Moreira , a distance education and international technology consultancy that has been working in the area for more than 25 years.
For the consultancy, “in the face of the covid-19 pandemic, even the most traditional and resistant institutions to distance education are making use of this modality, if not to offer new learning possibilities to students, at least to guarantee compliance of the two Hundred school days required by law. “
Quality of life
According to the psychologist and graduate student in People Management, Jaqueline Oliveira, EAD offers an increase in the quality of life, since it eliminates the need to travel. “It helped me a lot because of the flexible schedules. I have a very busy life and I live in an area that requires me to take public transport for at least 1h30 before arriving at the educational institution. I gained quality of life and adapted to teaching. I think I no longer want to do face-to-face teaching ”, he stated.
A survey conducted by the Brazilian Association for Distance Education (Abed) shows that both the demand for and the supply of distance education courses increased substantially between 2020 and 2021, and that, despite the situation created by the pandemic, the market it tends to consolidate even after the end of sanitary restrictions.
However, the characteristics of distance education also bring difficulties. Among them, the increase in delinquencies and school dropouts. Data compiled by Abed shows that for 21.6% of distance education courses offered, crime grew by as much as 50%. Dropout rates are also higher through distance education: for 27.5% of the courses analyzed, dropout rates increased by up to 50%.
Of the students interviewed and in arrears, 70% attributed to the economic crisis created by the pandemic a reason for suspending the payment of tuition, while 47.1% said they had difficulties adapting to emergency remote teaching.
National Distance Education Day
Established in 2003 by the Brazilian Association for Distance Education (Abed), November 27 marks the celebration of distance education as a tool for education and the democratization of knowledge.
To discuss relevant topics on the subject, such as methodologies, educational profiles and challenges in the distance education market, Abed prepared a conference calendar in line free to the public, both students and educators.
The full schedule can be found here .
Text translated by artificial intelligence.
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