Desenvolvimento de um sistema computacional para o ensino de estatística à distância

Abstract

Since the beginning of time knowledge has been a preponderant factor in the success and the happiness of an individual. Unfortunately,not everyone has access to it. Maybe because of economical reasons or because of the geographical distance from centers offering in formation. Because of this, Long Distance Teaching (LDT) was found to be a way of providing knowledge, more specifically, Statistical knowledge,to a larger number of individuals and also reaching areas of difficult access. With the Revolution of Computer science and the development of educational software like Master Stat,presented in this dissertation, LDT obtained the highest level in growth and development in its' history and it was made available to the public. In the beginning LDT presented little flexibility and interaction among those involved in the process of transmitting knowledge. With the Information Revolution or more specifically with the invention of computers, these inconveniences were over come. The objective of this chapter is to accomplish a theoretical rehearsal of LDT, showing its principal characteristics, applications, legislation, quality patterns, limitations, perspectives, theory, as well as the principal techniques used in teaching how to use the computer. It can be concluded that the use of LDT along with the resources of computer science is a democratic way of bringing knowledge to the public. Master Stat is educational software,developed at the Federal University of Lavras, located in the state of Minas Gerais Brazil to be used for Statistic teaching at long distances. In this chapter the objective is to work on the different ways used in teaching Statistics,the accept ability and performance of the software in first time teaching and future use of LDT. It was concluded that Master Stat available on CD-ROM is an appropriate tool for long-distance teaching of Statistics.