Design of a Blended Learning Environment as a Proposal for Educational Innovation in the Universidad de la Sierra Juárez

Abstract

Evaluated as pedagogically successful where it has been implemented, the blended learning modality combines face-to-face with virtual teaching. This work presents a proposal for the design of a learning environment for this modality for the educational context of the Universidad de la Sierra Juárez (UNSIJ, by its acronym in Spanish). The development of the environment was carried out with a design-based research (DBR), which allowed to generate a prototype of a socio-constructivist approach appropriate to the UNSIJ context. At first, the context diagnosis was carried out in order, among other things, to analyze the curricular map of educational programs, assess the technological infrastructure that the university has, and identify teaching attitudes and digital skills. As part of the results, the university has digital / technological resources that support teaching, but not a digital learning management platform (LMS). Likewise, there is a favorable attitude of teachers to use information and communication technologies (ICT) in their teaching practice and an intermediate level of competence in knowledge and use in various activities, but a low level in the use of these tools for the design of didactic activities. The information obtained helped to design a learning environment for the blended learning modality, which although it continues to be tested and remains in the evaluation and monitoring process, up to now it has helped to improve practice teaching in an ICT-mediated environment.