The metamorphosis of distance education in Latin America. A new fase with the entry of international suppliers

Abstract

This article analyzes the dynamics of the transformations occurring in recent years in distance higher education in Latin America and the Caribbean with a continuous process of growth in coverage. On a comparative regional approach identifies various stages and how they have helped to promote the expansion, with different stages marked by public and private impulses, and now international. In this context displays the arrival of a new phase of distance learning characterized by an internationalized dynamics. Examines the ways in which the internationalization occurs at a distance education, which is done not as border education but as mobility and income from external institutions at the local university systems in the countries of the region. The evolution of distance education shows the continuous shift from traditional blended model toward a virtualized dynamic and while introducing new ways of operating, expanding coverage and strengthens institutions with larger scales, and also facilitates international dynamics characterized by new presence, by marriage and by purchase of new international suppliers.