Interactions, theories and massification: a case study of the implementation of master's degree in distance education

Abstract

The present research presents the results about the implantation and development of the virtual master room that have as support the following pillars: (i) distance education (DE) and virtual learning environments (VLE); (ii)  large number of students and several courses, characterizing the context as a master's room, with the complexities that this situation commits for interaction and accompaniment to the students; (iii). The pedagogical practices derived from andragogy and heutagogy. The methodology used for this research is characterized as a case study, aiming to juxtapose the transferability of what was found for other rooms of the same nature in DE courses. It was structured a research plan involving the teachers, the data collected from the interactions and the identification of pedagogical practices. The research scenario was a private institution, with a large number of students, which works at DE. The follow-up of the students and teachers in the master's hall occurred in a period of fourteen weeks, this time of duration of a certain discipline. The conclusions of the research point out that interactions between the educational actors happen only with the intervention of the teachers, that the students prefer to study for the written material, although other materials are included, and that the teachers' workload to break this educational culture of passivity needs to be dialogue within the educational institution, in addition to the training of teachers to work in the context of the master's course in the DE course, and the operational implications of the VLE.