Resumo:
The research focused on the ‘Analysis of the characteristics of the Distance Education program (DE) – Open University of Brazil (OUB), of the Ariquemes Pole/RO’ to promote a collective debate among the graduates of the DE program. The quest was to examine the perceptions as to the formation itself, the improvement of the personal, professional and social development of these people. The intention was to inter-relate the impacts with the goals of the policy of democratization of higher education and training of elementary education teachers. With this, the intent was to point to collective propositions for the implementation of the higher education policy in the DE modality. Confronted with the value of DE in the contemporary world, in the first part the meaning of education and the characterization of DE was deepened through the light of some theoreticians. There was reflection about access and social inclusion as of the democratization and interiorization of DE, about the challenges and the potentialities confronted. In the second part, the context of the institutionalization to the legalization of the DE through the OUB System was presented. There was reflection about the meaning of the system, the value of communication as an essential requirement for the maintenance of the essential processes of the modality. Finally, the impact of the OUB in Ariquemes was dealt with: historical context of the implantation of DE in Ariquemes, the public mobilized in the selection process and the attended demand, the political decision among the federated entities – managers of the various organs, measures for the preservation of the principle of cooperation among the multiple ‘actors’. At the end, the study as to the profile of the graduates based on the exploratory bibliographic research of scientific articles, among others, the collection of data carried out through questionnaires with objective and subjective inductive questions, described the perception of the formation of the graduates of the Pedagogy Program of the OUB Pole – DE Center; socioeconomic questionnaires, perceptions of the graduates: intermediate evaluations at the end of the in class encounters and research as to the ‘perception of the formation from the perspective of the graduates’. Thus, some results follow about the educational development of the graduates who legitimated aspirations: trusting, committing themselves and, above all, being resilient when faced with innumerable challenges for the institutionalization and materialization of teaching at the UNIR/RO through the OUB System, through the collaboration regime with the Municipality of Ariquemes.