Institutional conditions and teacher`s development of electronic skills: a study in a Federal University

The expansion of Brazilian higher education institutions, especially with the installation of several campuses in the countryside and the advancement of ICT, has stimulated the use of distance education by universities as a way to respond to new educational demands arising from changes in the new world economic order. This new teaching-learning scenario involves change in skills and higher education of professors: solid academic development, work experience and pedagogical competence. The university institutional conditions in which professors are inserted can therefore influence the development of such skills. Therefore, this study aims to discuss, the influence of institutional conditions in developing electronic skills of higher education teachers. To achieve the objective pose, a basic interpretive qualitative study was carried out. Eleven faculty members at Federal University that work in the distance education took part in semi-structured interviews. Interviews and documents were examined by content analysis with the help of a specific qualitative research software, the ATLAS.ti. It was found that it is necessary for Federal University to strengthen distance education institutionally, through expansion of its staff, allocation of technical and administrative personnel with the course Coordination’s, either by recognizing workload of faculty in this modality or also favouring the development of electronic skills of professors