Educação a Distância Aberta no Ensino Superior: dialogando com processos de implementação de políticas institucionais para Recursos Educacionais Abertos (REA)

Abstract

Open Distance Education can be understood as the fusion between a timeless and non-spatial educational modality and the precepts of a philosophical and anthropological movement that bring together diverse flexibilities and freedoms in educational endowments. Currently, this concept converges with the use of Digital Information and Communication Technologies (DICTs), the creation of innovative methodologies and the use/production of open educational resources and practices, providing opportunities for a more collaborative teaching and learning process, in which teachers and students share the leading role. The so-called Open Educational Resources (OER) and Open Educational Practices (OEP) are at the heart of this debate as they are strategic tools and languages to promote the democratization of education and further stimulate the process of (co)authorship among educational actors, especially, in Higher Education. However, for there to be a wide dissemination of resources and open practices in educational institutions, there must be harmony between the actions to encourage OER initiatives and the development of institutional policies that support these actions. In this sense, this research has as main objective to investigate strategies for the elaboration of institutional policies aimed at OER in the context of Open Distance Education in higher education, considering the scenario of undergraduate courses at the Academic Unit of Distance Education and Technology of the Federal University of Pernambuco (UAEADTec-UFRPE). The methodological design of the research proves to be applied, descriptive and exploratory through a case study, with a predominantly qualitative approach. Data were analyzed based on a congruence of analysis protocols from different authors, in which Bardin's categorical content analysis (2011) stands out. After analyzing and discussing the results obtained, it was possible to observe that of the 24 selected post-criteria documents, only 1 national publication effectively deals with institutional OER policies in the last 5 years, but the growth of productions on other subjects related to the theme is recognized. Of the 69 Brazilian federal public universities, only 10% have OER collections in their repositories, but these repositories present an effective organization as a sustainable alternative in the dissemination of OER. The search result also shows that only 10.53% of the research subjects have satisfactory knowledge about Open Education and OER in the context of Distance Education, which suggests an increase in the approach and initiatives on the subject by the researched Institution. Students and teachers at UAEADTec-UFRPE have several converging points in their perceptions on the subject, in which the association of the term “openness” with gratuity stands out. The question about the existence or not of debates on Copyright and Free Licenses was considered one of the few divergences found in their perceptions, in addition to being the least understood context among subjects related to Open Education and OER. With the findings of the research, we listed 36 strategic proposals to contribute to the promotion of institutional policies for UAEADTec-UFRPE that are available in an OER Notebook in Wikibook format so that it can be used and constantly improved by the academic community or by anyone who is interested.