Social perspective of e-learning in the Brazilian university system

Abstract

Brazil, a country with 170 million inhabitants, brings together a series of factors which hinder traditional higher education from expanding. These factors include the very size of the country, the number of people to be educated, the physical infrastructures available, the ability to increase the number of educators needed and, consequently, the large investments required to meet this demand. This situation, aggravated by socio-economic differences and an uncontrolled rise in the number of private higher education establishments in recent years, calls for urgent measures that will allow the democratisation of higher education in Brazil and avoid compromising the sustainable development of the country. Distance education through information technology, or e-learning, is an opportunity with a huge potential for tackling this problem and integrating the Brazilian population into the knowledge society.