The process of innovation in the education sector involves a series of elements, which, from the Production Engineering perspective, can be systematized and can generate substantial profit and value in educational institutions. Successful strategic planning process and business model depend on the managers and team of professionals' approaches to break paradigms and develop a new distance education business model. This study describes some fundamental aspects of innovation in distance education analysis, which involve the subsystems and elements of strategic planning such as the knowledge source, creation, transmission, and interaction; the learner; and the learning environment. Incorporating innovation management in educational institutions requires some rules to adjust the business model motivated and driven by value proposition indicators, supply chain, and the target customer characteristics that ensure the success of the process. In addition to these adequacy parameters, deep involvement by managers, educators, and technicians is necessary to support innovation implementation. In Brazil, it is expected that professionals and public policies consider including distance education in their innovation model projects with high degree of flexibility and creativity to enable integration of knowledge, proper training of multidisciplinary teams, and the rational use of information technology and communication for equal sharing of knowledge.
Innovation in distance education; Strategic planning; Business model
