Las herramientas virtuales y la formación académica de los estudiantes de la carrera de trabajo social de la Utmach, 2020

Abstract

Virtual platforms are a set of programs and applications that operate on-line with the aim of contributing to learning and teacher-student interaction through synchronous and asynchronous E-learning modalities that facilitate the use of virtual tools, enhancement of research skills, responsibility, teamwork, monitoring of assigned tasks, participation, and understanding of content. For this reason, the main purpose of the research is focused on analyzing the incidence of the use of virtual tools in the academic training of students in the Social Work program at UTMACH, 2020. It should be emphasized that, worldwide, education is an inherent and inalienable right of the human being, it has become a key element for intellectual evolution, a conduit that enables the transmission of intergenerational knowledge and guarantees the economic strengthening of a nation by training professional profiles. However, due to the health emergency from COVID-19, paradigmatic changes occurred in the educational space, replacing the face-to-face and adopting the online modality, this event became a challenge for education in the generation of pedagogical spaces that allow students to explore their cognitive capacity. Particularly in Ecuador, the Executive Function, based on the approved Regulation, decided with the Ministry of Education, to restructure the Higher Education model that implies the change from face-to-face to telematic study, both in public and private centers, in order to safeguard the health of the educational community. Therefore, the strategy to guarantee the continuity of the educational process was the implementation and management of virtual platforms for students and their academic training. To better understand, academic training is the level of instruction that the student possesses to discern their knowledge, assume ethical principles-moral values, development of abilities, skills, and acquisition of significant experiences in pre-professional practices to apply in the subsequent work practice. According to the above, the educational process in the new online modality has a superior support, that the teacher provides new teaching tools to promote and satisfy the elementary educational needs self-preparation through recorded classes, difficulties in the development of some subject, and tutorials in order to ensure quality education and warmth, and in turn, the students consolidate as co-author of their own learning by exploring the wide world of the Internet to perform activities and nourish themselves with knowledge. With respect to the theoretical foundation of the degree work, it is intended to obtain favorable results according to the stated objectives and the research problem. How does the use of virtual platforms affect the academic training of students at UTMACH, 2020? In relation to the above, the research has a quantitative approach, using the method of exploratory scope, through the technique of the survey and the application of questionnaire developed in Google Forms to get truthful answers of the virtual tools that students have used in this mode of study and if their interfaces have allowed them to acquire significant knowledge of the curricular mesh. Higher Education is the last phase that complements the student's academic performance to obtain a third level degree; here, administrative authorities appoint teachers to guide students and impart valuable knowledge about the career as a profession. And, as recently due to the pandemic the face-to-face educational modality underwent a change of scenario, modifications were made for the design and application of teaching strategies, in order to strengthen study habits, promoting simple techniques to prevent difficulties in the student body. The application of the intervention proposal allows affirming the hypothesis of the use of virtual platforms with the purpose of improving academic quality, facing challenges, breaking paradigms in the form of assessments and innovation of the educational system to evaluate the student's learning level, analyze the pedagogical characteristics, required dedication and respect university autonomy. Additionally, the research findings determine that students of the Social Work career at UTMACH frequently use platforms such as Moodle, EVEA Virtual Learning Environment, Google Drive, Google meet, Jamboard, student agenda, Canva and iRae RAE Dictionary of the Spanish language, which promote critical-reflective thinking, individual participation, exchange of ideas, and synergy in groups, useful skills that promote the successful completion of the educational process. With these caveats, thanks to the development of Information and Communication Technologies ICT, virtual platforms have positioned themselves as allies of educational processes in order to transform the student from a receiver of knowledge to an investigative being responsible for his learning. In effect, it is urgent to guide, from the perspective of Social Work and exercising the role of social educator, the students of this professional career on the virtual platforms that should be used to strengthen the skills and abilities required by the professional profile.