Design e suporte em contexto de curso online: um estudo sob a perspectiva da teoria da atividade

Abstract

This study is on the interface between Applied Linguistics and Distance Education and aims at contributing to online course design improvement as well as to a broader understanding of the relations between the design and the support activities in online contexts. To do so, it investigates two editions of Teachers Links course, whose design is under the responsibility of the research groups Edulang and Reflexão sobre a ação. Based on the presupposition that design and support activities can complement one another and mutually transform themselves with the aim of improving design and participants performance, this study attempts to understand how an online course materializes itself as the object of the design activity and how the participants take part in the support activity, establishing the mutual impact of those activities. Thus, the analysis was organized into three parts. The first one focuses on the first edition of the course as the object of design activity so as to describe it and its network of activity systems. The second part has the support activity in process as its focus, from the moment the course starts to be implemented. To finish, the third part focuses on the 2nd edition of the course in order to describe and interpret the network of its activity systems, establishing relations between the design and support activities. The research draws on the Activity Theory (ENGESTRÖM, 1999, 2000, 2007), the Systemic Functional Linguistics (HALLIDAY e MATHIESSEN, 2004), based on the system of appraisal (MARTIN e ROSE, 2003) and on the system of transitivity (THOMPSON, 2004). The research paradigm is qualitative with descriptive and interpretive basis (HOLMES, 1992; MOITA LOPES, 1996; ERICKSON, 1992; HOLLIDAY, 1999), situated in a qualitative and quantitative continuum (BROWN, 2004). The results indicate that design and support activities are transformed by focusing not only on the problems but also on the individuals as well as that the support activity is a complex one due to the different nature of the problems that modify its object and require specific actions, besides the ones planned in the design activity