Desafíos de la educación universitaria ante la virtualidad en tiempos de la pandemia

Abstract

Worldwide, the teaching-learning process is undergoing a challenging change as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has led to the incursion of teaching in virtual environments. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the challenges presented by university education in the creation of virtual environments. It is a quantitative, descriptive study, in which a questionnaire, composed of 19 items, with Likert-type response alternatives (with validity and reliability criteria), was applied to 256 university professors, selected with intentionality criteria because they belong to a network that groups teachers from different Latin American countries. The results indicate that university education is dealing basically with understanding and applying new virtual platforms, the use of tools in an effective way, as well as designing and applying virtual evaluations that guarantee the achievement of the learning results to give continuity to the formative process. It is concluded that the challenge for university professors is to face changes in educational models aligned with the new technological strategies to achieve the expected learning results and answer to the graduated profiles considered in educational programs of Latin American universities, and also attend students’ emotional situations due to the pandemic.