Distance learning designing new relations in engineering education

摘要

The goal of this paper is to show a project developed for a School of Engineering in Brazil that is a telecommunication engineering program, which contains in its curricula a flexible period that is a time the student can attend in the several areas of human knowledge, in one of the other schools. A distance education course is included among their choices and the experience has showed that this kind of education is one step further in engineering education. Distance education is not new in Brazil once it is one of the pioneers of this kind of education in the world. It has a history that dates back the 40's with the "University of Air"; a radio program was developed by the Ministry of Education of Brazil to bring education to the remote areas of the country. Followed by the "Telecurso 1° Grau" and "Telecurso 2° Grau" in the 60's.