SHORT CIRCUIT: How an orkut-based environment is improving the communication between the different levels of a Higher Education Institution

• Autor(a) principal: Mattar Neto, João Augusto
• Data de Publicação: 2008
• Outros Autores: Rodrigues Maia, Carmem Silva
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Revista Brasileira de Aprendizagem Aberta e a Distância
• Texto Completo: https://seer.abed.net.br/RBAAD/article/view/178
• topic: distance learning; distance education; communication; higher education; university; informal learning.

The paper discusses the threats and opportunities of a platform developed at Anhembi Morumbi University (Sao Paulo, Brazil), named Tubarão (Shark), which generates open communication among students, professors, university staff and the high administration. It was planned as an orkut-like environment, with the intent that the students would quickly and easily accept and adopt it as an online tool. The paper investigates the vision of the system, the history of its implementation, and the current testing phase, previewing its potential problems as well as its breakthrough applications, including distance learning. It also presents a monitoring research of the platform during two months, analyzing data as the growth of the number of communities, number of users, number of files deposited at the system, and the number of posts, as well as the major subjects of interest, selecting specific threads of interesting conversations established by the different levels of members at the institution