Análise do desempenho acadêmico dos discentes de uma Instituição de Ensino Superior do Ceará nas modalidades presencial e a distância

Abstract

The expansion of distance learning offerings in higher education has fostered discussions about the quality of education provided in this modality. In particular, the widespread availability of distance education teaching degrees raises questions about the future repercussions on basic education. In this context, the present research aims to investigate the difference in academic performance between teaching degree students enrolled in face-to-face and distance learning modalities at a major higher education institution in Ceará. To do so, administrative data containing academic performance and student failure history was used. To carry out this comparison, propensity score matching methods employing kernel matching were used, and the results are presented for the unmatched sample and for nearest neighbor matching. Additionally, separate effects were estimated for each course. Furthermore, to compare the results with existing literature, an estimation was conducted using data from the 2017 and 2021 Enade, which evaluated teaching degree courses. Overall, the results do not support the existence of a systematic performance differential between modalities, being present only for specific courses. Moreover, the results obtained contrast with those from Enade, which point to higher performance for face-to-face courses. This difference may be partially explained by the differing profiles between the two modalities, the curriculum structure itself, as well as by the higher failure rate in distance learning courses.