November 28, 2021

Productive Mothers: A project that breaks the barriers of remote learning – Grupo Ser Educacional

For the past 16 years, the Catalyst Awards program has honored innovation and excellence in the Blackboard global community. In this series, a group of 2021 winners from across the globe shares their success stories and best practices.

This post was guest authored by Enzo Moreira, Luis Sena, and Dayanna Ximenes.

Enzo is an administrator and Specialist in Distance Education and Specialist in Active Methodologies. He has a master in Language Sciences and is the Director of Digital Education at Grupo Ser Educacional. Luís is the Educational Analyst at Grupo Ser Educacional. He is generalist professional with a focus on copywriting and creative solutions. Dayanna is a Physiotherapist with a PhD in Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. She is a specialist in Management of Higher Education Institutions and is the Digital Graduation Manager at Grupo Ser Educacional.

Grupo Ser Educacional is a 2021 “Community Engagement” Catalyst Award winner.


Grupo Ser Educacional, founded in 1996, is one of the largest education companies in Brazil. Above all, the Group and its institutions are committed to human beings and their personal and professional fulfillment. The commitment to employability and entrepreneurship is a result of their understanding of their role in shaping the individual, focused on personal growth in broader terms.

A growing challenge is to help society in educational growth, especially for the most vulnerable people. Four years ago, the state of Pernambuco, in northeastern Brazil, faced an outbreak of microcephaly. At the time, the increase in the number of babies born with congenital syndrome was unprecedented in the world scientific literature with this proportion. The growth of this disease among newborns brought an unforeseen scenario: Mothers who had to abandon their personal goals to dedicate time totally to their children.

In that context, the concern of this article is to answer the following issue: How to develop social projects for professional qualifications of citizens at risk and keep them in the process continuously until their training is completed at Grupo Ser Educacional.

The proposal is to offer scholarships and accompany mothers to deal with Blackboard Learn Ultra technologies in conducting their studies, with a view to training in the chosen courses.

The Productive Mothers Project

The “Productive Mothers” social project promoted by the Ser Educacional Group’s distance education department was created to promote strategies capable of helping the sustainable development of mothers of children with rare diseases which prevented mothers from seeking professional qualification in traditional higher education. A goal of providing support for the professional development of mothers, who, for many reasons, have yet to fulfill their dream of professional qualification due to the increased requirements to care for their children.

The project provided 189 mothers of children with microcephaly access to full and free study in the distance learning methodology, with home study using Blackboard Learn Ultra for professional development of each chosen course. With the help of Blackboard Learn Ultra, mothers developed relationships and activities for the discovery, construction, and communication of knowledge, promoted by the use of the platform’s technological resources for educational purposes.

To meet the needs of this at-risk group, the Ser Educacional group sponsored professional qualification through online education, ensuring social isolation to preserve the health of children and mothers.

Educational Challenges in Teaching Socially Vulnerable Students

The implementation of that project required differentiated management. That’s because, in this type of teaching, the student is distant from the campus which requires a different educational approach, as well as teaching and administrative services from the institution, than that provided to students of courses in the face-to-face modality. With the pandemic that began in 2020, the care and follow-up with these students had to be redoubled since, in a context of total social isolation aggravated by the national socio-economic context, education was a difficult resource to continue.

In this way, the project was for continuing education in order to provide these special students of the Ser Educacional group with the achievement of the objectives of the distance learning methodology. The challenge was also due to the interest in understanding how to integrate technologies in the practice of regular access to the online courses. Additionally, the process set to create conditions for mothers to know how to transpose information about the content presented in knowledge, using active methodologies and quality didactic materials with accessibility.

By using the Blackboard Analytics for Learn resources, the tutors of the Ser Educacional Group improved the mothers’ experience in the learning process, motivated and assisted students (future or current professionals) for a new performance in virtual learning environments.

A huge challenge was providing a close follow-up to the mothers. Thanks to the “Guardian Tutor” program (professionals who closely monitor the students), it was possible to aid the project’s mothers.

Project Results

The project expanded in 2020 to also offer online therapy services with the participation of the School of Psychology – UNINASSAU. Professors and students from the psychology course at UNINASSAU, one of the higher education institutions of the Ser group, participated in this clinic school. The project combined practical internship activities for students in the psychology course, coordinated by professors who supervise the course. With this monitoring, the project had a holistic focus on caring for the mothers of this project.

In the first half of 2020, the project had already shown visible results. With the help of Guardian Tutors, and using the data provided by Blackboard Analytics for Learn, it was possible to exponentially increase the average number of accesses to the Blackboard Learn Ultra platform. An increase of 396% in the general average of accesses was observed, increasing to 950 average accesses per student in the semester. In addition, we had 90 students passing more than four school subjects in 2020, compared to 76 students in the same condition in 2019.

And, mainly in the year 2021, the project had the incredible mark of 13 graduated students. This is an incredible indicator of how the project is progressing despite the socioeconomic and geopolitical difficulties faced. Of the graduated students, courses included pedagogy, nutrition, gastronomy, IT and production engineering.

This proves that, with close monitoring and empathy, it is possible to provide education to students regardless of their conditions and vulnerabilities. Education is the key to the future, and Grupo Ser Educacional is fighting for an increasingly inclusive education.