FCT projects the use of Remote Evaluation Systems in higher education

FCT is currently carrying out a set of actions that will help validate the possibility of using Remote Assessment Systems (SAR) in higher education. This pilot project is being developed by FCCN, the FCT's National Scientific Computing Unit, and was triggered by the urgent need to promote remote assessment solutions for higher education institutions (HEIs), due to the abrupt mass migration to distance learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

SARs provide reliable verification and identity monitoring options for reliable teaching assessment, whether to remotely validate the learning of a teaching program or to remotely organize large-scale assessments. The activation of a project focused on contracting mature platforms, with several years of development and operation in HEIs around the world and with needs similar to ours, is therefore underway, within the scope of the "Nau - Always Learning" project of the INCoDe.2030 initiative.

Four different platforms are being studied and compared, and the process is being conducted together with representatives from universities and polytechnics, under the coordination of the FCCN unit team, which guarantees access to the EWS under analysis and promotes solutions in order to conclude them as quickly as possible.

As there is no "tailor-made" solution that guarantees coverage of all the different needs presented by HEIs, such as online proctoring, live proctoring, auto proctoring, identity verification, recorded tests and integration with LMS (Moodle, EdX, etc.), the selected solutions will be tested for one month, financed and acquired centrally and with real tests of already identified HEIs (and others that may join), which will allow 1.000 to 3,000 tests per solution, depending on the format chosen, for a total of 3,000 to 9,000 tests.

At the end of this process, the HEI managers will present a report with the results, which should include the learnings, good and bad experiences, identified by teachers and students.

A further webinar is being planned as part of the Metared initiative, to be announced shortly, which will mark the start of the project and in which details will be given to the various players on how access to the platforms can be requested.