Students self-assessment in private education: the influence of the perceived quality in distance education courses for the sustained advantage of the institution

This paper investigates the relationship between the competitive aspects of the resources offered to the students and the self-assessment they do about themselves. For this purpose, a survey counting 4,671 valid learners’ entries from a private Brazilian educational institution was done. The survey involved constructs made by the institution related to the resource-based view theory. To test the scale’s reliability, the Cronbach’s alpha was used; the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was done to evaluate the normality; and the Spearman’s coefficient was also used to see the correlation between the indicators and the constructs; the Wilcoxon test was done to assess the balance among the constructs. It is suggested that the student’s self-assessment may influence the course’s quality assessment and the institution’s competitive advantage.