
Development of digital competencies for teachers of the virtual modality in Higher Education.
Espirales. Revista multidisciplinaria de investigación científica, Vol. 7, No. 46
July - September 2023. e-ISSN 2550-6862. pp 1-13
praxis. According to the instrument applied, it was determined that they use technology
tools such as Microsoft Teams Moodle or Google Classroom. Gomez (2020)emphasizes
that these tools facilitate and streamline the management of the learning process,
allowing teachers to create classes, assign homework, post grades, publish comments
and access the entire learning process in one place. Their use has proven to be
beneficial to students, who have been highly engaged in a virtual environment where
they can work with a variety of tools (Kraus et al., 2019).
Despite the fact that most teachers work in different areas of knowledge, most of them
have 1 to 5 years of work experience in virtual education, Dias-Trindade et al. (2021)
argue that age and educational field are not determinants of greater or lesser digital
competence, but work experience contributes to slightly better results in teachers who
have worked with digital technologies for several years and/or have taught distance
education subjects.
Halpern et al. (2021) points out that to enhance the use of ICTs at a more expert level
it is necessary to have clarity in communication (intention of the message to be
communicated), establishment of a clear schedule, adequate writing of instructions
through virtual environments, guarantee of access to resources, among others.
It was found that teachers are able to create their own resources and edit digital content
resources for their virtual classes almost always and always, especially those who have
a work experience between 1 to 5 years and between 6 to 10 years. In this regard, Colás
et al. (2019) emphasize that, through communication and the creation of content
production and editing of digital resources, teachers can transfer their own digital
competencies with a greater reach towards students. Therefore, teachers should be
able to generate their own digital resources and content in their pedagogical
interventions to transform their students through the development of digital
competence. Novay and Chacin (2022) determined that the digital competencies most
developed in higher education by teachers were related to information access,
information management, internet management and virtual environments.
Regarding the pedagogical praxis of the teachers of the Admission and Leveling Center
CAN of ESPOCH, they stated that they use ICT in a significant percentage in their
classes, taking into account when, how and why to use them with students. In addition,
it was found that they do supervise the activities when working with students, allowing
them to be the protagonists of their own learning. In this regard, Laurente-Cárdenas et
al. (2020) point out that university professors who combine face-to-face classes and ICT
in virtual environments have found new ways of teaching and learning, which suggest
innovative methods of pedagogical interaction and also help them in their pedagogical
praxis.
Various models have been implemented in recent years in distance education training
for teachers, among them ICT, which has improved their technological literacy,
deepening and creation of knowledge and editing of resources, and complementarily,
has facilitated learning, design of practices, digital tools (Hernández et al., 2021).
Meneses et al. (2023)suggests that the technological digital tools, which have been