Analytic report of distance learning in Brazil

Transcrição

1 Analytic report of distance learning in Brazil

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3 Preface With Abed completing its 14th year of existence, it is with great pride it presents to the professional community of flexible and distance learning (EAD), in and out of Brazil, the results of a study permitting comprehension of the current trends of this educational modality. Using a digital online tool, Abed received from dozens of entities the numeric data pertaining to its provision of EAD. It included public and private teaching institutions, corporations and state companies, EAD services and products suppliers, and other information describing the current EAD scenario in Brazil. Believing that there is an international audience with interest in the dynamism, expansion and diversity of EAD in the country, we created a bilingual edition, hoping that this access to our community can promote more contacts, and perhaps, more partnerships between Brazilian institutions and their counter parts abroad. We intend to continue this annual task, thus enabling the educational entities and other EAD providers, governmental and research and development-fomenting agencies, journalists, researchers and professionals of all sectors of education to make their strategic and tactical decisions, make the comparisons they desire and follow the growth of the phenomenon that is EAD. Abed would like to receive from the readers of this report suggestions for its improvement, amplification or greater utilization. With gratitude to the teams of Abed and Pearson Education, which produced this very important volume for the identification of where EAD is in the country, I offer a cordial abraço to each one. Fredric M. Litto Abed President

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5 Reading guide In Jogo da Amarelinha [Hopscotch Game], the writer Julio Cortázar said, in his manner, that the book was many books, and the reader was invited to choose the possibilities, such as the game he borrowed the name from. The same invitation is made by this CensoEAD.BR. The broad collection of data gathered in this publication offers references for the readers with such distinct interests as distance learning (EAD) students, managers of formal courses and corporate education, educators engaged in this set of methods, academic investigators of relevant educational variables such as evasion and school technology, public and private planners of educational policies and consultants of the sector. Hundreds of teaching institutions and companies engaged in this education and economy environment were heard, and there are various manners of reading the results and tendencies appointed thereby. With the objective of helping the readers to get faster to the type of information they are interested in, we present, below, a basic reading script. Chapter 1 portrays the national EAD environment in 2008: Institutions offering distance courses, what these courses are, what number of students attending them is. In addition, this chapter brings the most recent data on EAD published by the Ministry of Education (MEC). It is a good directory for EAD students and future students who seek formation or who want to know what a certain institution offers. In Chapter 2, teaching institutions, both accredited and of non-formal courses, expose the details of their way of performing EAD. The resources they offer, the media, the way of conceiving content, the profile of their students, how much they intend to invest in 2009, the rhythm of release of new courses, etc. Future students, course managers, pedagogues, academic researchers and consultants may like it, all contemplated by different outlines from the large amount of information offered by the teaching institutions, which kindly answered a questionnaire with 40 questions, distributed in the first semester of Corporate education is the theme of Chapter 3, in which the companies providing distance courses to their employees and collaborators expose their methodologies, their results, investments and assess EAD, comparing it to on-site education performed within their training centers or corporate universities. Chapter 4 specifies the motion of the supplier market for companies of the EAD environment. It is seen from the point of view of who is the most sensitive to the economic indicators, which are the three types of institutions of the educational environment which indicate possibilities of growth or of problems. It is useful for consultants and institutions engaged in entering or growing in this environment. Chapter 5 brings the result of interviews with students of EAD institutions and allows some questions of extreme importance for the set of distance methodologies to be considered, such as the comprehension of this set of methods and motives of school evasion. For those who study EAD, pedagogic directors and courses coordinators, it offers indicators that aid in applying the content. For students and future students, it indicates the opinion of those who went through the experience and have much to say. Appendixes A and B, to complete the work, compile a list of theses on EAD presented to the Associação Brasileira de Educação a Distância [Brazilian Distance Education Association] (Abed) and a list of books on EAD received by the Association, respectively. I hope that, with the support of this brief guide, this publication may better accomplish its mission, which is also the mission of its organizer, Abed: to amplify and diffuse the environment of EAD in Brazil. Fábio Sanchez CensoEAD.BR Coordinator

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7 Contents Preface...vii Reading guide...ix Methodology...xi 1 Distance learning market overcome crisis and grows... E1 Mapping of EAD in Brazil... E1 Higher education grows more than elementary education... E2 1,752 distance courses... E3 Official Information on EAD in Brazil... E4 2 Distance learning in Brazil... E5 Description of the sample... E5 Mobility: 42% of the students are out of the seat state of the institutions... E6 Profile of the student: advanced age... E6 Higher evasion in the public sector... E7 90% of growth in new courses... E8 Differences between the educational levels... E8 How the evaluation is carried out and which medias are used... E9 Virtual medias... E9 Investments grow up to one third...e10 Faculty...E10 Non-formal courses...e11 3 Distance learning in corporative education... E12 Presentation of the sample... E12 Growth during crises... E12 Basic learning and training... E13 4 Distance learning students... E15 5 Survey with students: time interferes more than money does in dropping out of school... E17 Appendix A List of theses defended and in progress received by Abed... E19 Appendix B Books on distance learning received by Abed... E36 Appendix C Tables...62

8 Respondents list Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table

9 Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table

10 Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table

11 Methodology This publication presents five research modules carried out by the CensoEAD.BR with former students and institutions practicing distance learning (EAD). These researches were made with: Institutions accredited by the Sistema Nacional de Educação [National Education System] Ministério da Educação [Ministry of Education] (MEC) and Conselho Nacional de Educação [National Education Council] (CNE), in the graduate and post-graduate levels; Institutions practicing non-formal courses; Companies practicing corporate education in the formation of their own employees; Suppliers of products and services for institutions practicing EAD; Former students, graduated and drop-outs, of EAD courses. For porposes of these research modules, courses with over 50% of class hours conducted off-site were considered as EAD. Only the time space of 2008 was considered for this research. Research with accredited institutions Between March and May 2009, questionnaires were distributed to the institutions which, in 2008, took part in the following lists: Institutions accredited by the National Education Council to conduct specific distance courses or to conduct courses in specialty areas; Institutions which reported conducting EAD activities to the Censo da Educação Superior [Higher Education Census], promoted by the Instituto Nacional de Estudos e Pesquisas Educacionais Anísio Teixeira [Anísio Teixeira National Institute for Educational Researches and Studies] (Inep); Institutions participating in the federal project of Universidade Aberta do Brasil [Brazilian Open University] (UAB); Institutions participating in the project Escola Técnica Aberta do Brasil [Brazilian Open Technical School] (E-TEC); Institutions accredited by the State councils of education of the 27 States of the Federation to conduct EAD courses in elementary education, technical courses and young and adult education (EJA) levels. These data originated the universe of institutions practicing EAD as accredited by the Education System in Brazil, shown in Chapter 1 herein, which reached 376 institutions, 1,752 courses and 1,075,272 students. To compose the data of such universe, the institutions were consulted regarding the number of students and the courses conducted in The data of those which answered the questionnaire distributed to those accredited institutions (sample) were transported to this universe. Those institutions that did not answer the questionnaire were consulted to submit, by , the data relative only to the number of students and courses.

12 Universe In order to make up a group to be compared with the official Brazilian education data (on-site and distance) disclosed by the Ministry of Education, a universe comprised of those accredited institutions was created, as follows. This universe is detailed in Chapter 1 herein and brings together all institutions which, formally, can conduct EAD in all levels, granting certificates and diplomas valid academically throughout the national territory. As the response to this survey is voluntary (there is no legal obligation for the institutions to answer it), some internal and not necessarily public data, such as the number of students, for instance, may be underestimated. Most of the institutions which did not inform these data obtained only recently the accreditation to conduct EAD (so as to participate in federal projects such as UAB and E-TEC) and have not implemented courses yet or just did not have students in 2008 yet. However, even though they have not informed the number of students or courses, they appear in the list, since the accreditation information is public. The institutions which obtained their accreditation in 2009 will not appear in this universe, for its time space is the year of It is also possible, for the same reason, that some institutions appearing in the list do not conduct one of those courses anymore, or conduct some others in addition to those attributed herein, for having given up some courses or changed their offerings for To compose this universe, extraterritoriality was disregarded, i.e., the number of students was distributed according to the criteria of the Educational Census, in the State of the informing institution. In the assessment of the sample, described below, it was possible, based upon questions formulated to the institutions, to assess the impact this extraterritoriality has over these numbers. The adjustment relative to the extraterritoriality issue is relevant in EAD, since the objective of this set of methods is just to identify student remoteness. The criteria to define the areas where the courses of the institutions would fit were, firstly, the name of the course and, then, the specialization of the college or university where it is inserted in. Multidisciplinarity was not considered for this specific survey, so each course had the value of one. Thus, a park management course, for instance, was ranked in the management and administration area, and not in the environment area. Technology for education was ranked as technology, information technology and Telecom, and not in the educational area. The information regarding the number of students in the Federal and State institutions comprising the Centro de Educação a Distância do Estado do Rio de Janeiro [Distance learning Center of the State of Rio de Janeiro] (Cederj) was attributed to Cederj itself, since it responded, in consolidated manner, for all its parties Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro [Rio de Janeiro Federal University] (UFRJ), Universidade Federal Fluminense [Fluminense Federal University] (UFF), Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro [Rio de Janeiro Rural Federal University] (UFRRJ), Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro [Rio de Janeiro State University] (UERJ), Universidade Estadual do Norte Fluminense Darcy Ribeiro [Darcy Ribeiro North Fluminense State University] (UENF), Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro [Rio de Janeiro State Federal University] (Unirio). However, in the universe of accredited institutions, although appearing in the list for attribution of the number of students, Cederj was not considered as a teaching institution, since its integrating parties were so considered. The data were always submitted to the CensoEAD.BR through the questionnaire or by , by the person selected by the institution to answer the research. Sample For those institutions that answered the questionnaire, which result is shown in Chapter 2 herein, the research was tabulated after consulting the respondents to verify and adjust the data. One hundred and seventy-three questionnaires were used, from a total

13 of two hundred and twenty-one presented to the Associação Brasileira de Educação a Distância [Brazilian Association for Distance Education] (Abed). Only one person was considered, indicated by the institution, as the responsible source for the research, to answer the questions relative to all institutional levels (pedagogy, administration and technology). Only institutions offering diplomas or course completion certificates were analyzed, but student support centers, branches or other associated institutions were not. The consultations were made by remittance, through the Internet ( ), of a questionnaire in Excel format, to be filled out and returned also through the Internet. Research combined with non-formal courses, with institutions practicing corporate education of their own employees and with market suppliers The questionnaires had unrestricted access, from March to June 2009, on the Abed website, with the request that the institutions conducting courses that fit into the scope of the research filled them out and submitted them to the Census. Bulletins were issued to the mailing list of Abed, informing about the research. Also, some institutions of well known activities in specific areas were consulted and invited to participate in the research. Restrictions were not made as to the participation of the EAD institutions, and institutions of any size and thematic or methodological fitting were able to participate. Forty-two questionnaires on non-formal courses, 45 questionnaires of institutions conducting corporate education (of which 36 were used) and 59 questionnaires of suppliers for the EAD market (of which 53 were used) were submitted to the CensoEAD.BR. The list of names of the institutions participating in the research may be seen at the end of the corresponding chapters. Some questions formulated as to the non-formal courses institutions were also made to those accredited by the education system, which allowed the comparison of the two groups in some outlines cutouts. Research with former EAD students The list of former EAD students was obtained with the collaboration of the institutions which took part in the research above. Some of them submitted, after consultating students, their contacts by telephone and/or . The consultation to the students was made by telephone by researchers from Abed, between May and June Among the students indicated by the institutions, 100 drop-out students (who did not complete their courses) and 100 completing students (who were duly certified after completing the course) were selected.

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15 1 Distance learning market overcome crisis and grows CensoEAD.BR mapping verifies evolution in all educational levels and regional configurations. Despite the international crisis, EAD institutions in Brazil planned to invest 23% more this year. Offer of new courses in all modalities nearly doubled. MEC [Ministry of Education] estimates more than 100% growth in undergraduate students. Since the beginning of this decade, the numbers of distance learning (EAD) in Brazil have shown, through all surveys, an evolution many percentage points above the economic growth of the country. The Ministry of Education (MEC) has already disclosed, based on a supervision carried out in the first semester of 2009, that there was, in the undergraduate level, an estimated growth over 90% in the number of students in At the end of this chapter, we will better describe these official data. But the research concentrating only on the accredited institutions still underestimates the population using the set of the distance methodologies: in the case of the MEC, they disregard the set of all educational levels, in addition to the large contingent of EAD students of non-formal or professionalizing courses, and those students graduated from institutions and companies which practice corporate education for their employees. The CensoEAD.BR describes, in the following pages, the results of research which expand the view of this universe, for they include in their survey educational levels such as elementary, young and adult education (EJA) and technical courses, one of the areas which grows the most in the educational environment. Through this survey, it is possible to confirm that, in 2008, at least 2.6 million Brazilians used EAD, according to Table 1.1. It was verified that there is an amount of students in non-formal courses similar to those in accredited courses, but potentially a lot greater, since this survey identified the students from only 42 of the institutions conducting courses of that type. The separate analysis by the CensoEAD.BR of the universe of the courses of institutions accredited by the Education System (involving not only those researched by MEC, of undergraduate and post-graduate, but those accredited by the States in the elementary, EJA and technical levels) allowing some relevant comparisons of the EAD universe with official data of the country on education in general. Table 1.2 lists the institutions accredited to conduct EAD at all educational levels, and also the ones most researched by MEC. Mapping of EAD in Brazil This list of institutions allows at least two relevant outlines, per State of the Federation and per legal status (public and private), as well as in outline comparison with the similar environment researched in on-site education by MEC. In comparing the number of students from public and private institutions, for instance, one sees that the relationship is completely inverted regarding the difference between the on-site method and the distance methods set. While in on-site education (face- -to-face), among the 60 million Brazilian students, approximately 80% are in public education, mainly due to the large mass of students in elementay education (approximately 52 million); with EAD the scenario is the opposite, with only 25% of the students in public institutions (Table 1.3). In EAD, the numbers in the outline between higher and elementary education are also inverted, because this is a minority, having only 27% of the total students. These are differences that suggest the adoption of different methods and distinct paradigms for the two fields.

16 It is also possible to notice, in the survey of the CensoEAD.BR, the clear relationship between the greater demand of students and the presence of private investments, since the most populated and developed regions (Southeast and South) have a predominance of students from private institutions, while in the North region and in seven of the nine northeastern States this is inverted, with a more intense presence of students in public projects. In the country, the number of students in private institutions is three times greater than the number of students in public institutions. When separating, the number of institutions conducting EAD (Table 1.4), instead of the number of students, this scenario becomes even clearer, since it is only in the North and Northeast regions that there are more public than private institutions in a ratio of nearly double the difference. The distribution of the students repeats and increases the standard concentration in the Southeast the region in whose institutions 42.8% of the EAD students of the country are enrolled. The State of São Paulo, for instance, with 30% of the students in the country, exceeds the North, Northeast and Center-West regions, which, together, educate 22% of the Brazilians through EAD. Seen isolated, all regions also present large differences between the States, highlighting the performance of isolated centers in some regions. The Federal District has 74% of the students from the Center-West; Tocantins has 74% of those from the North. Bahia is also highlighted, with 52% of the students in institutions from the Northeast. Higher education grows more than elementary education Also in the outline per educational level, separating those of higher level education (undergraduate and post-graduate) from those of basic level (including EJA and technical ones), one can notice some serious regional disproportionality. Elementary and technical education have only 2.8% of students in the South, 7.4% of students in the Northeast and 7.7% in the North, while the Southeast and Center-West regions have between 40% and 50%. In the sample analysis, in Chapter 2, one can also notice that the largest part of the projects in the basic level EAD and EJA are private. The same research with the sample, in Chapter 2, shows that, despite the research having been carried out during the peak of the international financial crisis started last year, the EAD institutions planned to invest 23% more this year. The difficulty in the development of distance projects in the basic educational level has at least one reason: the legal issue. While undergraduate and post-graduate projects can be established in any State of the Federation after obtaining the accreditation with the Conselho Nacional de Educação (CNE), the EAD projects of basic, EJA, and technical education need to obtain the accreditation in each State council of the part of the Federation it will be established in. As the criteria vary from State to State (age allowed, methodology and documents demanded, type of course which may be authorized, etc.), this inhibits initiatives of this level, which has a growing demand in the country, especially for technical courses. This tendency was attenuated by the appearance of federal projects such as Escola Técnica Aberta do Brasil [Brazilian Open Technical School] (E-TEC), aimed at technical education institutions. In Table 1.4, which shows the accredited institutions that conduct EAD in the country, one can notice that the difference between higher and basic education projects is not so large, even though those from basic education are also in fewer quantity. The difference is larger in the outline per students, because many of the institutions which already are accredited with the E-TEC (for basic education) still have not established their courses or opened enrollments for the year of In addition to that, the federal technical schools (currently federal institutes) were considered as technical education institutions, although some of them have initiated higher level courses with enrollments in The survey in the year of 2009 will probably have a large growth in the number of students in distance technical courses. If considering only the number of accredited institutions, two States call attention to themselves. The first one is São Paulo due to the large difference between private and public institutions (these are only 13.5% of the total in the State), which is explained by

17 the attractive demand, but also by the delay of the system of the State in adhering organically to EAD, while the Universidade de São Paulo [University of São Paulo] (USP) has already recorded, for some years, colleges with isolated projects, and Centro Paula Souza [Paula Souza Center] (of technical education) also has some distance elementary graduation projects, such as Telecurso TEC, in a partnership with Fundação Roberto Marinho [Roberto Marinho Foundation]. Another State is Minas Gerais, notable for the large difference between projects of basic and higher education. While in the country average there is a slightly lower number of accredited basic education institutions, in Minas Gerais they represent only 20% of the total, and most of them are federal institutions two agro-technical schools and three federal education centers, in addition to a technical school of the Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora [Federal University of Juiz de Fora] (UFJF). The resistance of the State Council for Education from that State in authorizing distance elementary education projects (EJA and technical) created a repressed demand, which is being supplied by neighbor States or other instances, not only public, but also private, as the case of the Federação das Indústrias do Estado de Minas Gerais [Minas Gerais State Industries Federation] (Fiemg) and the Serviço Nacional de Aprendizagem Industrial [National Service for Industrial Learning] (Senai). The State of Minas Gerais, as it will be seen in the study on extraterritoriality in Chapter 2, is one of the most targeted for the uptake of students by the distance institutions. It is a great contrast with the States of Santa Catarina, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul and the Federal District, for instance, where there are more EAD projects for basic education than for higher education. 1,752 distance courses The distance institutions conduct 1,752 courses (Table 1.5). Those of specialization level (post-graduate, but pre-master degree) form the largest isolated group (37% of all courses), followed by those of undergraduate (26.5%), or by a group that can be comprised of the undergraduate courses plus those technological or of pedagogic supplementation, which still have 34.6%, maintaining the numeric superiority of the specialization courses. The inexpressiveness of EJA projects in the North and Northeast regions is also to be noted. Seen in their thematic distribution (Table 1.6), the courses aimed at forming teachers are still the largest group (31.5%), followed by those of management and/or administration (19%) and those involving technology and computers (6.7%). Also, in this scenario, the courses related to the law area (6%), appear with relevance in their majority in the specialization level. This result is coherent with a study made by the Instituto Nacional de Estudos e Pesquisas Educacionais [National Institute for Educational Studies and Researches] (Inep) and published in number 2 issue of the institution s bulletin Na Medida (Table 1.7). Although another thematic classification has been made, the Inep Study also found a larger number of students and distance courses with the themes of administration and pedagogy. This larger volume in the area of pedagogy and teachers training in general is justified by the large demand for teachers without appropriate training in the country. According to the Estudo exploratório sobre o professor brasileiro [Exploratory Study on the Brazilian Teacher] (Inep, 2009), if one considers basic education, for instance, only 68.4% of the teachers have higher education. Further, the Law of Directives and Bases of Education established a term, ended in 2007, for the teachers entering education to have appropriate training. As to the large number of students and courses in the administration and management area, it is an area of a large growth in the corporate environments, and a theme of easy modularization and pedagogic application, which eases its application in EAD. The offer of distance courses in 2008, as it shall be seen in Chapter 2 herein, which shows data of the institutions responding to the detailed research, grew 89.9%, in comparison with the previous year (299 new courses were offered in 2007, and 568 new courses offered in 2008).

18 The analysis of the themes of the courses clearly shows the regional vocations and applications of EAD. It is noted, for instance, the strong presence of Minas Gerais in courses in the agriculture-cattle raising and agriculture area (the State conducts 70% of the distance courses with this theme), due to the presence there of institutions such as the federal universities of Lavras and Viçosa. The tourism and leisure courses also concentrate in tourism poles in the North, Northeast and Federal District. Official Information on EAD in Brazil The data of the Higher Education Census already disclosed by MEC also make clear the advance of private education over public education in EAD. In the historical series of the numbers relative to the graduation level, it is possible to see that, in 2005, the number of students in the private system exceeded, for the first time, that of the public system, and since then, it only grew, and reached 2007 with 70% of the students (Table 1.8). The result is similar to that determined by this CensoEAD.BR surveying all educational levels (from basic to post-graduate): 74.5% of the students in private institutions. The numeric predominance of private over public can also be observed in the figures relative to the number of institutions and the number of distance courses (tables 1.9 and 1.10) In the first semester of 2009, MEC disclosed an estimate of growth in the number of students and institutions of EAD in 2008, based on a supervision made throughout the country. According to the data collected, there were 760,599 distance graduation students in 2008, and 145 higher education institutions (IES). Based on this survey, MEC estimates a growth of 90% up to 100% for the year. The data relative to the formal determination of Inep in 2008 had not been disclosed until the closing of this publication. Some data of this supervision were divided according to MEC accreditation rankings (only undergraduate): 760,599 students in 109 accredited institutions with students in 2008; Private institutions: 551,860 students in 49 (IES); Confessional religious and community institutions: 49,139 students in 11 IES; Public institutions with non-formal teaching: 67,600 students in 48 federal and state universities and federal institutes; Public institutions with paid teaching: 92,500 students in a state university; Accredited institutions: Only for lato sensu courses: 32; For undergraduate and lato sensu courses: 145 (of which only 109 had students in 2008); Total accredited IES: 177.

19 2 Distance learning in Brazil Courses grow and already attract 42% of the students out of the state in which the course is offered. Evasion is higher in the public sector, where growth is half in comparison with the private sector. CensoEAD.BR questioned institutions responsible for more than two million distance students. This chapter brings the results from two modules research carried out with 215 institutions non-formal that conduct distance learning (EAD) courses in Brazil, being 173 accredited by the Educational System and 42 that non-formal non-formal courses. Together, they had students in They were divided into two groups, duly identified in each table used. In some themes the same questions were made to both groups, which enables the comparison between them. First of all we described the sample from the institutions accredited by the Educational System to conduct courses in the following levels: basic, technical, young and adult education (EJA), undergraduate and post-graduate. Description of the sample The accredited institutions that had their questionnaires validated for this research serve nearly one million students, which is a great majority of the students using EAD in the country (88% from all students, pursuant to a survey set forth in Chapter 1). The number of accredited institutions providing EAD by the Educational System in Brazil represents 46% of all students. The region with the smallest representation in the sample is the Northeast, which even so presents more than one third of the students and institutions represented. The proportionality of the universe of students with the sample is large, both with respect to the number of students and institutions (Table 2.1). The Southeast and Southern regions concentrate a major part of the institutions of the sample of accredited institutions (68.7%) and also the largest part of the number of students (84%), in particular the Southeast region (38% of the institutions and 42% of the students). This huge concentration of students in such regions makes them more attractive private projects. In both regions, private institutions represent more than twice the public institutions, the opposite of what happens, for example, in the Northern and Northeast regions, where public projects prevail. The North region also stands out due to the minimum existence of projects in the basic educational level (Table 2.2). One can verify, further, on Table 2.3, the comparison of percentages in relation to the number of institutions with the number of students, an structural difference between the basic and higher educational levels. While in the basic and technical levels there is a greater number of institutions in comparison with students at country level, the contrary occurs in the higher level, with a greater representation in number of students incomparison with the number of institutions. The 42 institutions that provide non-formal courses considered in this research serve more than one million students. In this group, 64% of the institutions and nearly 80% of the students are located in the Southeast region. The list of institutions participating in this research may be verified at the end of this chapter.

20 Mobility: 42% of the students are out of the seat state of the institutions The scattered territories of the students in EAD, especially in the undergraduate and post-graduate educational levels, make it difficult to locate them. However, it is possible to measure the space distribution of those enrolled through the answers given by institutions to two questions made about space distribution in the CensoEAD.BR questionaire: How many students the institution has throughout the seat state, and which are the three states that provide students, not considering the state where it is located, by order of importance. The institutions indicated an average of 42% of students out of the seat state (Table 2.4), studying in educational student support center. The concentration of students in a few institutions may be perceived on the Table 2.5, in which it is verified that 43.3% of the students are only in four of the 68 institutions that answered to such query four are those that have the greater number of (more than 250 each). The densely populated State of São Paulo is indicated as the major supplier of students to institutions of other states (Table 2.6). Minas Gerais, the second major supplier, has few institutions with courses at the basic educational level, EJA and technical education, which causes the students to seek alternatives in surrounding states. Bahia, although with less population than Rio de Janeiro, overcomes such state as the location that provides for institutions from other states. Table 2.7, compares the seat states (where the institutions are located) with the supplying states (indicated as locations out of the seat state where the institutions have students), and it also indicates the number of students that belong to the institutions. It is verified that Minas Gerais is the location where there is a greater growth potential as supplier of students by EAD, since it is indicated by the institutions with greater number of students (although the state of São Paulo was the most mentioned). Rio Grande do Sul and Bahia also stand out as potential providers of students to major teaching institutions. The analysis of such tables suggests to the conclusion that Paraná hosts institutions that seek the most students in surrounding states, and that the states of the South and Southeast region have greater potential to provide students, besides the state of Bahia. The states whose institutions seek the majority of their students out of the seat state are, besides Paraná, Rio de Janeiro and Mato Grosso do Sul, due to EAD projects with national or regional scope, such as Unopar, Uninter, Senac, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation and Getúlio Vargas Foundation. States with a great internal market naturally are not well ranked in relation to those that search for students from other states. In the state of São Paulo, for example, 38.6% of the students are not from the seat state (Table 2.8). Private institutions are those that seek the majority of students from other states (Table 2.9). Most institutions of the sample (63%) prefer to work in student support center rather than isolated in only a single a unit at service of the students (Table 2.10). Therefore, they are those that most provide education (93% of the students). From the 110 institutions of the sample that work with student support center, 56% are private. This specific group (private institutions with centers) is responsible for 71.7% of all students, although comprised by only one third (35.8%) of the institutions. Profile of the student: advanced age According to the teaching institutions, females are predominant, indicated with a majority of 53,4% (the exception is the Middle- -west region, with a minority of 47% indicating women). The student in the EAD system is usually older than the students in the system on-site e education, since 54% of the institutions informed that the predominating age is over 30 on-site educational. And those who are over 30 are those most enrolled in institutions (72%). The more customary age range is from 30 up to 34 years of age, which is predominant in 28% of the institutions, responsible for 35% of the students.