Uso do material didático hipermidiático pelo aluno: análise de uma experiência em educação semipresencial na Universidade Aberta do Brasil e Universidade Federal do Ceará

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate how hypermedia features used in semi attending distance education may be related to the learning process of the students of the graduation in Letras Inglês of the Universidade Aberta do Brasil. For this, it was done a bibliographic study that understood the elements that characterize the hypermedia resources and a new theoretical proposal for learning in the digital age, developed by George Siemens, which is called Connectivism. It was concluded by a historical review in the instructional materials and resources used for teaching of a second language. Concerning to the methodology, it was taken with the qualitative study of ethnographic feature and it was counted with the voluntary participation of thirteen students of both sexes enrolled in the course selected and tied to the poles. During the fieldwork, semi-structured interviews were conducted and navigations in the didactic materials of the specific disciplines of the course, as the focus was to observe how the hypermedia resources were available and used by the students. The results showed that the students visualize the strong and the weak points of the didactic materials that they used during the course. Moreover, they also realized what are the purposes and functions of the hypermedia resources available and made suggestions to improve them. However, factors such as skill level, time and necessity may be decisive during their study practices. Finally, it is possible to reach the following conclusions concerning to the hypermedia didactic materials: first, the reason for them to be constructed from the combination of different languages and media and they also foment a non-linear navigation, which enable the students through their needs and style to assume a role of co-author of his or her material and to define which paths will be included / excluded during the study. Second, the hypermedia resources that were analyzed help to the learning when it brings real life contexts to the content which allows associations between prior knowledge and new information and providing practical applications of topics. And third, by incorporating elements that are available in cyberspace, which benefit in the development of the networks of the students learning and adding new nodes. For the education, this can be useful for making known the views of the students about resources and how this relates to the ways of use of the didactic materials during the study and learning.