Communication and mediation of information to create video classrooms in the context of producing and online leprosy course on basic care, offered by the executive secretary of the Open University Health System of Brazil (UNA-SUS)

Abstract

Because communication is a complex phenomenon, it is studied in numerous contexts in society. When producing an online course, there are concerns related to the communication of actors who participate in production and the information that forms the course contents. The human factors research group at Universidad de Brasilia is directly linked to the studies of people who interact with communication instruments and tools in collaborative work. The online courses offered by the executive secretary’s office at UNA-SUS are elaborated collaboratively using a production process that involves online course production team actors and authors responsible for the course contents. This study describes the production of and online leprosy course on basic care and the communication and mediation of information in the development stage of that process based on Laswell, de Osgood and Sharmm, and, de Tubbs’ communicative model. To know the phenomenon in depth, the study used participant observation. The researcher immersed into the PCO team for 14 months and freely observed work routines, activity flow, communication channel and information mediation tools. This way, it is perceived that continuous communication using agreed instruments is fundamental for production process flow. On the other hand, the information that constitutes the contents of the course are oriented by an action map which is considered the matrix of the online course contents.