Evaluation of virtual external higher education and the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic

Abstract

Abstract This art. addresses the external evaluation of Higher Education conducted virtually by the National Institute of Educational Studies and Research Anísio Teixeira (INEP) in undergraduate and technological courses offered by private and community educational institutions, as a basis for issuing authorizing acts and the impacts caused by the Covid-19 pandemic in the adoption of this evaluation modality. The functions of the regulatory State and its authorizing acts, which are subject to compliance with national standards and quality assessment, are highlighted. The National System for the Evaluation of Higher Education defines methods for assessing the quality of institutions and higher education courses. The pandemic brought changes to people's lives and work relationships, also affecting external evaluations, which shifted from in-person (in loco) to virtual modalities, and these changes persisted. This is bibliographic research that analyzes the legislative changes introduced in the regulation of virtual external evaluations and the theoretical framework used, identifying the positive and negative aspects of the new evaluation modality based on a survey conducted with Basis evaluators. The conclusions are the result of the interpretation of legislative changes, the theoretical framework, and evaluators' opinions, allowing, through deductive reasoning, the identification and demonstration of the positive and negative aspects of the new evaluation modality. The research outcome enabled the presentation of a practical proposal for adopting a new evaluation system: a hybrid in loco external evaluation system, which better addresses the necessary balance in applying national standards that aim to ensure education quality and authorizing acts.

Keywords

• evaluation
• virtual
• impacts