DISTANCE EDUCATION: Its unfolding in an institution of the federal network of education, science and technology

The advent of the internet brought profound changes in the experience education, contributing as an important help of the Education modality to Distance (EAD). The purpose of this modality was to meet the demand of professionals of each era. These objectives were redesigned with social, economic and political transformations occurring in each time and space. Vocational training plus democratic education gains social bias with the democratization of access to education, including the participation of federal institutes. The article addresses issues related to distance education (EaD) and the growing importance of this modality, with focus on the Federal Institute of Minas Gerais (IFMG) and on verifying how this modality, since its implementation, has been developed. The methodology consisted of bibliographical research on the history of EaD and the qualitative analysis of quantitative data from the Nilo Pecanha Platform. The results point out that the number of applicants elucidates the size of the demand for vacancies, with the competition of three students per vacancy, and greater demand in the age group between 35 and 39 years old. The dropout rate has been reduced, but still represents a challenging scenario, since their motivations are still unknown, hindering the effective formulation of strategies for the evasion control. And finally, the academic efficiency indicator showed that the IFMG contributes positively to the indices that assess the completion of courses by students.