E-Learning and Distance Education Project Management
Why distance education?
The boom in Distance Education
In Latin America, 80% of Internet users have done some type of online training and universities are betting on training through video courses that attract more and more students.
The emergence of Internet education in the university environment has allowed many students who previously could not have had access to higher education, now have it. Dependence on the traditional type of teaching is no longer the only outlet for students.
New paradigms generated by NICT, virtual environments, online education, e-learning, blendedlearning.
The configuration of this society, which works with a network morphology and the convergence of specific technologies in a highly integrated system, have given rise to e-commerce, e-learning and e-government as new forms of interaction that use the Internet as the network of networks.
In a digital education, the classroom will be distributed throughout the establishment thanks to the multiple connections between computers, and will be extended at home. In a digital approach, the center of the process is the student and not the teacher.
The emergence of the network society has marked the end of one era and the beginning of another: the Information Age. This new era has its foundations in previous historical and social events such as the passage from Orality to Writing, the appearance of the Printing Press and the Industrial Revolution.
New Technologies could never replace the human element provided by the teacher and we must understand that these technologies are presented as a support tool, a very valuable instrument that we cannot ignore
Advantages and disadvantages for institutions and companies that wish to implement the modality.
Disadvantages.
Advantages
It facilitates the democratization and decentralization of training. It generates social inclusion.
It stimulates creativity for the solution of institutional situations by sharing experiences and different paradigms.
It favors permanent training.
It enables the investigation of institutional management processes, allowing feedback.
Within the diversity of institutions, it creates a space for autonomous and unique management working on the same principles
It fosters the awareness of the professional community, in which ideas, experiences and practices come together.
Avoid displacements of teachers.
It requires further research to improve processes.
It requires research due to the psychological and social consequences of this new form of interaction.
It requires extra investment for the preparation of human resources and sustaining it to make it efficient.
Active intervention of the tutor to avoid isolation
Teach and learn on a virtual campus.
How to learn and teach on a virtual campus
In short, the learning process, as well as education, is a global approach that has different concretions depending on the medium through which it is carried. Currently, thanks to the new information technologies applied to education, we can see to what extent the pedagogical rethinking that we make of the educational use of non-attendance or asynchronous spaces is the same as for conventional face-to-face spaces for education and learning.
The educational methodology for virtual learning environments must be student-centered. It cannot be otherwise, especially taking into account the special characteristics of non-contact students, among which we highlight that they are people over 25 years of age with stable work and for whom the problem is not distance since They do not live in isolation, but time, that is, the impossibility of studying or accessing conventional training centers at pre-established times. They need a system that adapts to them, not they to the system.
New pedagogical models applied to the virtual
E-Learning pedagogical model: E-learning is a concept of distance education in which the use of information technologies and other pedagogical (didactic) elements are integrated for the training, training and teaching of users or students online, that is, it can be understood as a learning modality within distance education and is defined as e-learning.
Model for a distance education system Dr. José Luis Pariente F.
Humanist Pedagogical Model: Virtual Education is the training process developed through the incorporation of information and communication technologies through the Internet, in face-to-face and mediated processes in virtual learning environments, which offer a wide range of alternatives for the acquisition of competences, knowledge, abilities and skills, based on the principles of different theories of learning and instruction.
Mediational pedagogical model in virtual environments: Alternative for the pedagogical use of information and communication technologies. For virtuality to have possibilities in education, paradigm changes are required, since the New Communication and Information Technologies (NTCI) are not only technological but semantic instruments; They allow knowledge, communication and intercommunication, and make it possible to enter the entire field of knowledge, expand mental capacities and human development.
Cooperative and collaborative learning
Cooperative learning is an approach that enhances the learning that occurs between students, that is, it gives students the opportunity to teach and learn cooperatively, instruction not only comes from the teacher, but falls on them as active participants in the process. It proposes that the student, being part of a group on which her performance depends, will ensure that the other members of the group also perform well. This type of learning relies on shared instruction, it is the students themselves who will play roles as helpers or tutors. This approach changes the old role of the direct delivery teacher of instruction to a cooperative work group adviser teacher and he is responsible for creating the structures that will lead to cooperative learning.
Collaborative learning is an approach that focuses on the interaction and contribution of the members of a group in the construction of knowledge, in other words, it is a learning that is achieved with the participation of parts that form a whole. Collaborative learning is "a carefully designed system of interactions that organizes and induces reciprocal influence among the members of a team. It develops through a gradual process in which each member and everyone feels mutually committed to the learning of others. generating a positive interdependence that does not imply competition ".
Teaching design. Materials and resources for the EAD
How to plan teaching for an online environment
In EaD and in virtual courses the constructivist approach is taken into account since it considers the subject of learning as an active participant. The teacher tutor structures the learning environment, creates habits and skills in the search, selection and treatment of information, also empowers the participant in order to achieve active participation in the learning process.
In virtual education and / or e-learning it is presented as a proposal to facilitate and improve learning through the use of technology based on information and communication technologies. The courses must be defined "tailored" to the needs raised and the technical possibilities. One of the most important points to be taken into account by institutions is to help teachers organize their pedagogical perspective.
Development and processing of content in different media and formats.
Platforms for content management development: these are solutions that offer the necessary platform to develop and implement applications that provide solutions to specific needs. They offer an environment and development tools. Consequently, their interest lies in the possibility of building solutions adapted to each case.
Preparation of self-instructional modules.
An instructional or self-instructional module is a didactic material that contains all the elements that are necessary for the learning of concepts and skills at the pace of / the student and without the continuous presence element of the instructor.
Previous organizers, textual aids, multimedia, meaningful activities
Pre-organizers are introductory materials presented before the learning material itself. Unlike summaries, which, in a general way, are presented at the same level of abstraction, generality and breadth, simply highlighting certain aspects of the subject, organizers are presented at a higher level of abstraction, generality and exclusivity.
New roles and functions of the teacher, the tutor and the student.
A virtual teacher must have the ability to motivate, energize community spaces, value the personal contributions of students, promote teamwork and carry out personalized monitoring of each and every one of the students. The virtual teacher must adjust to the profile of each student because each student imposes their own pace of learning.
Encourage the active participation of the student in their learning process. Where he has to make decisions about the content he wants to learn based on her specific needs. The Internet is shown as a means especially indicated to promote meaningful and active learning, since the student must take a predominantly active role.
Help the student select their training programs based on their personal, academic and professional needs (when the time comes).
Students role.
Be part of work groups made up of your classmates, in no case trying to carry out all the activities without the help of others
Participate in the activities proposed to be carried out individually and in collaborative work groups.
Express timely to their classmates and the teacher the difficulties that arise with the proposed activities.
Know the essential tools to participate in a network course: word processor, email system, Chat system, discussion groups, Internet searches, consulting specialized databases, handling specialized software, basic knowledge of other languages .
tutor
Roll as a socializer. The trainer must have the ability to create a favorable learning environment, encourage, motivate and, therefore, facilitate exchange between all course participants. One of the fundamental aspects of training through the Internet is the ability, therefore, to express oneself through the keyboard. Therefore, we can affirm as an essential characteristic the writing ability that the teacher must have, in such a way that he can express himself in writing with a sense of humor, metaphorically, ironically, etc., as required in each case.
Role as facilitator. The trainer acts as a guide and guide, providing the participants with all the necessary tools to advance satisfactorily in their learning process. At the same time, you must observe how the group's learning rhythm evolves and at the same time the rhythm that was foreseen to carry out the training process.
Role as a connoisseur of basic Internet resources and services. This competence should allow you to know the existing information search systems, available resources and possible uses and applications oriented to the training process that is being carried out at all times.
Evaluation And Quality Control Of The Project.
fundamental concepts
Assessment is today perhaps one of the most prominent issues in education, and not because it is a new issue at all, but because administrators, educators, parents, students and the whole of society as a whole are more aware than ever of the importance and repercussions of the fact of evaluating or being evaluated.
There is perhaps a greater awareness of the need to reach certain levels of educational quality, to make adequate use of resources, time and efforts and, on the other hand, the level of competition between individuals and institutions is also higher.
Techniques and instruments for student evaluation
Assessment Instruments: It is the physical support that is used to collect information about the students' learning. Any resource that provides us with information about the learning of
students. No instrument is by itself sufficient if it is not used intelligently and thoughtfully. The more information obtained, the more certainty we will have of the results we hope to obtain. The instruments must evaluate significant learning.
Evaluation Techniques: They are a set of actions or procedures that lead to obtaining relevant information about student learning.