Volumen 17 – Número 3 – ES

Creating a Network for Employability: The Creation of Useful Networks to Help University Students Enter the Labor Market

(Tejer una red para la empleabilidad. La creación de redes útiles para la inserción del alumnado universitario)

Autores/as:

A. Aguelo, T. Coma-Roselló, E. Vicente-Sánchez and S. Baldassarri

Resumen:

The framework for our study is the transition between university and the workplace. It has two main purposes: firstly, to assess the Cooperation and Networking skill amongst students about to graduate from university, and secondly, to find out whether they are aware of its importance. For this analysis, a 360° skills assessment process was carried out with 434 students from two countries (Spain and Mexico). The results show that women from both universities (Spain and Mexico), and Mexican students in general (male and female) are better at this skill. Overall results for the group as a whole show poor performance which must be improved.

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Teaching Physical Sciences Using Arduino Physics Lab at the Universidad Del Cauca

(Aprendizaje basado en Proyectos para la Enseñanza de Ciencias Físicas usando Arduino Physics Lab)

Autores/as:

J. Vidal, D. A. Bravo and C. F. Rengifo

Resumen:

In this work, we proposed to evaluate the use of the Arduino Science Kit Physics Lab as a low-cost tool for conducting self-guided physics laboratory practices using a project-based learning approach for undergraduate students at the Universidad del Cauca. Our main hypothesis is that the guides permit to realize the practices with the kit as an alternative to virtual and remote learning environments. To support our claim, we performed a survey that evaluates teamwork, the solution of problems, and self-study, the results showed a high score for each one of the skills.

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Transforming Higher Education Using WebVR: A Case Study

(Transformando la educación superior mediante WebVR: Un caso de estudio)

Autores/as:

L. D. Glasserman-Morales, J. A. Ruiz-Ramírez and F. J. Rocha Estrada

Resumen:

The transformation of education through emerging technologies has been an imperative due to the pandemic of COVID-19, which has forced higher education institutions to propose strategies to provide better experiences for their students. The objective of this research was to identify the challenges and opportunities of using WebVR tools for the development of academic activities, with the intention of interpreting how these technological tools are combined with educational practices among teachers and students. The context was placed in an activity of a graduate level course in online format, in a private higher education institution in Mexico. A qualitative study was conducted with a case study design to account for the perception of the participants regarding the value of the user experience, the analysis of the integrated tools and the contribution of this WebVR tool to the development of competencies in educational practice. The results show that if the technical requirements and a basic level of appropriation of digital competencies are met, including this type of emerging technology will bring benefits to the educational practice, such as the development of transversal and disciplinary competencies, improvement of interaction and socialization of participants, as well as motivation by incorporating playful elements.

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What Students Say About the Flipped Classroom

(Lo que dicen los estudiantes sobre la clase invertida)

Autores/as:

M. Marqués Andrés and J. M. B. Contelles

Resumen:

Flipped classroom is a teaching model that has become popular because it improves learning and student satisfaction. However, the perception of some teachers is not unanimous and there is no agreement on what factors make this model work. In this paper we analyse the opinions of our students collected over the last six years in which we have applied the flipped classroom, with the intention of studying the reasons they give for considering it a better methodology than the traditional lecture class. The opinions, collected through a survey, confirm that the flipped classroom is effective only if it is designed and implemented properly, i.e. providing good resources, making a good design of the activities, and using the class to solve doubts, receive feedback and deepen what has been learned. Feedback from the two courses affected by the pandemic, where classes were conducted online, indicates that this methodology is robust and easily adaptable to online teaching.

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Why Do CS1 Students Become Repeaters?

(¿Por qué los estudiantes de una asignatura inicial de programación se convierten en repetidores?)

Autores/as:

M. -J. Marco-Galindo, J. Minguillón, D. García-Solórzano and T. Sancho-Vinuesa

Resumen:

Learning to program is hard for many students. As a result, CS1 courses have a significant percentage of repeaters. For this reason, the goal of this article is to analyze which factors affect repeaters so that a specific learning strategy for them can be performed. In this regard, a first analysis of a CS1 course shows there are two types of repeaters: (1) those who do (almost) nothing throughout the semester and drop out, and (2) those who work during the whole semester, but finally fail. According to repeaters’ perceptions, they were motivated to learn to program, but it was difficult for them to keep up because of it was so hard to reconcile it with their personal context, so based on what they did the previous semester, they would prefer to continue from where they left off or change the pace of activities.

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Impact of Interactivity and Active Collaborative Learning on Students’ Critical Thinking in Higher Education

(Impacto de la interactividad y el aprendizaje colaborativo activo en el pensamiento crítico de los estudiantes de educación superior)

Autores/as:

T. González-Cacho and A. Abbas

Resumen:

In academia, critical thinking involves obtaining reliable information and taking reasoned actions to solve problems. To explore critical thinking skills among undergraduate students, we performed an empirical study of data collected from undergraduate Architecture and Civil Engineering students attending a leading private university in Mexico. The data collection instrument was a Google Forms questionnaire applied online through the university learning management platform, Canvas, using convenience sampling. We received 273 useable responses out of 281 distributed. A hierarchical regression technique was applied to explore the correlation of (1) interactivity and (2) active collaborative learning with the critical thinking of undergraduate students. We found that scholarships and the enrollment status of students significantly influence critical thinking. Our analyzed results additionally suggest that interactivity and active collaborative learning positively influence critical thinking. This study also confirms that a social-media-based learning environment is essential to enhance students’ soft skills.

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The Efficacy of Online Higher Education in Latin America: A Systematic Literature Review

(La eficacia de la enseñanza superior en línea en América Latina: una revisión sistemática)

Autores/as:

D. Stanley and Y. Rocío Montero Fortunato

Resumen:

The objective of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to summarize the Spanish and English language literature that compares the academic performance of Latin American university students in online and face-to-face courses. Research questions focus on trends, mean differences, and the significance of the findings. It includes peer-reviewed articles published between 2005-2020, found in EBSCO/ SciELO/ HAPI/ WOS/ Scopus databases, that offer an experimental or quasi-experimental research design to analyze efficacy; articles with case studies outside Spanish-speaking Latin America, focusing on K-12/post-graduate education, and/or solely including satisfaction/ qualitative measures were excluded. The final 35 articles analyze courses mostly based on a hybrid pedagogy used for a treatment section. After removal of value-added observations, results on 30 outcomes were synthesized in descriptive tables, forest and funnel plots. In most cases, online components do no harm to students of a given course; outcomes increase significantly in 57% of the cases, using a sample of over 10,000 student observations. Intermediate effect sizes from the online innovations are over 0.60 (intervals [−0.13-1.470]) and largest when student achievement is the outcome. Publication limitations include limited student background information, unclear sorting across sections, and small sample sizes which suggest caution in the interpretation of results.

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A Model to Assess the Adoption of e-Learning Tools by Professors in the Context of COVID-19

(Modelo de adopción de las herramientas virtuales por parte de los docentes universitarios en el contexto del COVID19)

Autores/as:

V. Botero-Gómez, L. G. Ruiz-Herrera, A. Valencia-Arias and K. J. Neyra-Alemán

Resumen:

In this paper, we propose a model to assess the adoption of e-learning tools by professors in the context of COVID-19. The proposed model was constructed by combining three technology adoption models: the Theory of Reasoned Action, the Theory of Planned Behavior, and the Technology Acceptance Model. This study followed a quantitative methodology based on the collection of data from 123 questionnaires administered to professors from different higher education institutions in Medellín (Colombia). According to the results, the variables that most influence the adoption of e-learning tools by professors are compatibility, self-efficacy, previous experience, satisfaction, infrastructure, administrative intervention, social influence, and technical support.

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Guest Editorial Learning Analytics in IberoAmerica

(Guest Editorial: Learning Analytics in IberoAmerica)

Autores/as:

P. J. Muñoz-merino, M. Pérez-Sanagustín and M. Á. Z. Prieto

Resumen:

Learning analytics is a key knowledge area for the improvement of education that proposes the use of educational data to improve decision making. In the last years, the Iberoamerican region has made a lot of efforts to introduce learning analytics and take advantage of its advantages. In this Special Issue, a set of proposals of learning analytics in this region are presented. The Special Issue includes four articles that cover a wide range of topics of this area, including adoption at the institutional level, analytics applied to academic improvement, video analysis, or visual analytics in learning management systems.

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Building Institutional Capacity for Learning Analytics: Top-Down & Bottom-Up Initiatives

(Desarrollo de la capacidad institucional para la analítica de aprendizaje: iniciativas arriba-abajo y abajo-arriba)

Autores/as:

M. Pérez-Sanagustín, I. Hilliger, J. Maldonado-Mahauad and R. Pérez-Álvarez

Resumen:

Capacity building for Learning Analytics (LA) in Higher Education Institutions requires the coordination of organizational aspects and infrastructure development. This also depends on the organizational maturity of the institution and its leadership regarding LA adoption. LA capacity building can follow two approaches: (1) top-down, led by institutional managers; and (2) bottom-up, led by ground-level staff. This article studies two LA initiatives of each type conducted in the same institution to compare the deployment of organizational processes and infrastructure. The lessons learned that were captured from each approach are shared to inform other universities in Latin America on developing LA capabilities.

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