A computer system for data collection and evaluation to support institutional decision-making at the Federal University of Santa Catarina

Abstract

Institutional evaluation in public universities is a persistent work for permanent and comprehensive reflection of university duties and is a basic condition to identify challenges to formulate guidelines for Teaching, Research, Extension and University Administration. Thus, a computer system that is able to facilitate data collection using online resources, enabling efficient participation of all stakeholders in the evaluation process, could be of great interest for university community. This work aims to demonstrate software for data collection, research and institutional assessment, called COLLECTA, to be used at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC). This system, using new information and communication technologies, will integrate undergraduate students, graduate students, graduates, teachers, technical and administrative managers in search of better institutional quality. The research development, due to this project nature, was based on data generation within a qualitative approach. This is a descriptive research approach involving literature review and problem resolution through action-research. Were thus identified the computational needs,  and the system COLLECTA was designed, developed and deployed, in order to assist decision making at UFSC with data from institutional assessments collected by the proposed computer system, as well as make information more accessible.