This paper analyses the reported results of an evaluation of the development process of master's level post-graduate distance education courses in Production Engineering. This initiative, the only one of its kind in Brazil, won a Quality Award from the Brazilian Distance Learning Association (ABED). This analysis involved three aspects evaluated in the report with respect to teachers' and students' attitudes toward distance learning: (A) teachers' and students' attitudes toward the quality of interaction; (B) students' attitudes toward the teacher's role; and (C) students' expectations regarding the course. The theoretical approach was the theory of attitudes, the concept of representative schemata, and the constructs relating to attitudes about different aspects of distance learning. This is an exploratory, quantitative study which analyzes the attitudes of teachers and students involved in a master's course in Production Engineering in a distance learning setting. We discuss how the students' attitudes influence the time they take to complete the course. The subjects of this survey are 471 students and 30 teachers. The data was collected from a questionnaire. Our findings suggest that the students' and teachers' attitudes regarding the aspects investigated were predominantly positive. Time to completion was about two years, which is less than the time consumed for a similar, traditional master's program offered by the same institution. Unlike the findings of some surveys on the role of attitudes toward distance learning, the results of our study suggest that positive (or negative) attitudes toward distance learning involve both the pedagogical model and the technology employed. These findings beg a more detailed investigation about the role of students' attitudes in master's programs in Production Engineering.
distance education; attitudes; production engineering; post-graduate education
