DISTANCE LEARNING AND NATIONAL TRADE CAPACITY BUILDING IN BRAZIL: THE EXPERIENCE OF CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF BRASíLIA (UCB) CHAPTER 7 Francisco Villa Ulhôa Botelho Rodrigo Pires de Campos Ana Paula Costa e Silva Lêda Gonçalves de Freitas Lucia Henriques Sallorenzo Núbia Rosa Bernadete Moreira Pessanha Cordeiro Weslley Rodrigues Sepúlvida 7.1 Introduction In 2003, a very successful partnership established by the Catholic Virtual Center of the Catholic University of Brasília (CCV-UCB) was signed with the Brazilian National Service for Industrial Learning (SENAI/DF) to plan and execute of a distance learning postgradu- ate course on foreign trade. The postgraduate course was originally designed to have a direct impact on the export performance of Brazilian small enterprises. The partnership was part of an initiative aimed to contribute to the National Foreign Trade Agents Network (REDEAGENTES), a federal government project designed and executed by the Brazilian Ministry of Industry, Development and Trade (MDIC). The REDEAGENTES Project aims to disseminate and strengthen an export culture among small enterprises at all units of the country, with the ultimate goal of enhancing their export performance and integrating them into international trade (MDIC, 2006). Through this project, the Brazilian federal government registers professionals willing to become a Foreign Trade Agent (FTA) on a voluntary basis. These professionals come from a wide range of Brazilian institutions such as federation of industries, commercial associations, and regional banks. Once a FTA, one commits himself to offer permanent support to local small enterprises already engaged, or intending to engage, in export activities (MDIC, 2006a). Even though distance learning was a suitable strategy to the challenge of developing the trade capacity among FTAs located in different parts of the country, there were several concerns. First of all, 400 FTAs from all States of the country were registered to attend the course, some of them living in quite remote areas, accessing the Internet using low speed dial-up connections. Secondly, virtually all FTAs were, in fact, starting a distance learning SomeBest cap07 8/16/06 2:41 PM Page 59