Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

In the Wallonian psychogenetic perspective, affectivity pervades all relations between the mediator/ student and the object of knowledge.  In distance learning education it   seems that affectivity could  will engage students in the course , stimulates  the learning of scientific concepts through motivation. This article aims to discuss the concept of affectivity built in pedagogical mediation in an on-line course.  A case study was built  from a  Specialization Course about Technologies in Education offered to teachers and managers of Basic Education. We analyzed the relationship between affectivity and motivation through the answers to the question "How did the pedagogical mediation of the course contribute to your academic performance". The methodology used was the content analysis, carried out through the Alceste software and we obtained circa of 2117 answers.  The senses in the motivation category were divided into two groups and we stablished some atributes: (a) importance of the mediator for the conclusion of the course, the mediator characteristics to motivate the student, the mediator's support for the student.; (b) In the second group, we noticed the importance of the mediator in folowing the student throughout the course and the strategies for this monitoring. In the conclusion we present how the relationship of affection built with the mediator linked the students to the course, contributing to their permanence and sucess in guaranteeing the learning process.

Nowadays, Distance learning goes through the redefinition of concepts, among other reasons by the rise that the so-called emerging technologies are acquiring, thus expanding the technologies with which the students can interact and the experiences that can be provided. The traditional and current format blended learning which dominates the university education generally formed by a combination of non-presence, flexibility and easy access, is demanding a new view and form of usage. Together with it, the Augmented Reality, catalogued by the Horizon Report as a technology which must be present in the educational system about the year 2020, is presented as a resource which can improve the previous one, given the closeness between the content and the context reality presented, thanks to its possibility of being used at a distance. In this article an analysis of both concepts is carried out, as well as the possibility of overlapping the second within the first one is presented. In order to verify an example of the combination of both, we present the work carried out from the RAFODIUM project, in the Pedagogy and Medical Degrees at the University of Seville, by means of the description of objects created by Augmented Reality and of the enriched notes which can be consulted through the learning management platform that the mentioned university uses. The article is concluded by highlighting that the on-line training demands attractive and motivating formative actions connected with the reality, an aspect that the Augmented Reality offers. 

The open educational movement makes reference to free software, training and open or accessible content and open science, considering education as a fundamental right and a motor of social development which should aim at encouraging the construction and universal dissemination of knowledge. For this purpose, a network of consolidated research groups called REUNI+D (University Network for Research and Educational Innovation) was created (Ref. EDU2014-54943-REDT), which intends to promote, in a coordinated manner, open training courses and disseminate the results of educational research and innovation by considering the criteria of open science. The article explains the objectives, organization, activities, as well as the impact and assessment of the network for the joint construction of knowledge by the involved members. The methodology, of a descriptive character, is based both on the document review and on the survey of open character. The results show that the assessment of the network is positive, both for the construction of knowledge and for the training and professional development of researchers. It shows that the existence of REUNI+D has proven to be a key strategy to reinforce the research activity of the groups that form it and the dissemination of the results of the research, acting as a community of practice and a network of learning and teaching professionalization.

Current scientific evidence has corroborated that one way of stimulating cognitive function is through the regular practice of physical activity, an intrinsic component of active video games. Recent studies have shown that by including this type of video games during the school day, the current levels of sedentarism could be reduced in adolescents, promoting a better physical condition, socialization and integral development of those who practise them. In addition, these may be useful for improving cognitive and academic performance. However, these effects are still almost unexplored and very few studies have established the relationship between these variables. Therefore, the objective of this work is to review and analyse the results of the most current research based on the influence of active video games on cognition in adolescents. PubMed, Web of Science, SportDiscus and ProQuest databases were revised, over the past 10 years, which is the time limit set for this analysis. Six studies were included. All showed a positive association in these variables and only three of the studies included cofounders. These results suggest that promoting programs through active video games could have great potential for cognitive and academic development at this educative stage. In addition, they would allow the development of healthy habits of physical activity, the increase in student motivation and a better socialisation.

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have shown great potential to provide open access to learning, especially in higher education, with just Internet connection. However, the pedagogical model used in these courses is frequently being criticized. Many researchers claim the application of active pedagogies in MOOCs in order to improve the student learning processes, as it has been shown in face-to-face courses. Nevertheless, some common features of MOOCs such as the heterogeneity of user profiles, the scale or the asynchronism can hinder the application of these active pedagogies. This paper explores twenty MOOCs, in different languages, platforms and knowledge domains to analyze in detail the current use of collaboration and gamification in such courses. Results show that although there is a trend to promote social interaction, there is a lack of underpinning pedagogical intentions to achieve collaborative outcomes, and when collaboration happens, it is mostly spontaneously, not pursued by the instructional design. Also, results show that gamification is frequently used as a motivational strategy, implemented for rewarding students’ individual actions, lacking the recognition of collective achievements. Finally, there is evidence that MOOC platforms are often complemented with additional tools to support student interaction and gamification.

The main objectives of this theoretical paper are to compare some constructivist-related learning theories and explore how they can be adequately used in educational technology and distance education. After a brief introduction, constructivism is defined as a general philosophy of education encompassing several different learning theories. The article then presents and discusses the following theories: situated cognition, activity theory, experiential learning, anchored instruction, and authentic learning. Connectivism or distributed learning is also presented as a new and important theory, including its pedagogical view and practice in massive open online courses (MOOCs). These theories are then organized in a coherent way, classified under the constructivist umbrella, pointing their common and distinctive features. Connectivism is positioned as a new philosophy of education for the digital age, making Vygotsky’s concept of zone of proximal development (ZPD) more flexible and stretching it to include learning that lies outside the learner, in social networks and technological tools. The text finally proposes further work on how these theories can be properly combined and used as frameworks for constructivist projects and activities in the fields of educational technology and distance education. The article is based on the search and review of peer-reviewed articles on constructivism, connectivism, the other aforementioned theories, and education technology and distance education.

This article presents a review of works that center their interest in eLearning platforms and the data mining of participants’ activity. The studies in this research area generate information, through the analysis of such logs and data, that is provided to the students in real time to help them to collaborate and learn through collaboration on the platform. There are studies from different areas of study such as Learning Analytics, Educational Data Mining, Group Awareness Tools or Interaction Analysis Tools. The review takes a double perspective: i) to analyze the data extracted from activity logs, their processing, the information generated and the ways to communicate it; and ii) to explorer the model and the instruments used to assess how the information provided impact on online collaborative processes and/or the learning. The conclusions emphasize that the models of collaborative learning that justifies the selection of the data extracted from the activity logs, the processing, the information generated and provided to the students and the way of communicating it, are not explicitly stated. In addition, important biases are detected because of not considering the multidimensional nature of the collaborative learning processes. Also, few studies analyze the relations between students' uses of the information provided and the quality of their collaborative processes and learning results. The very few studies that do analyze such relation do not go into depth on the changes in group dynamics caused by information.

Recently, the term of digital university has been a buzzword or trend in different contexts in Spanish-speaking countries. However, there is no available clear definition of the concept that helps us specify its implementation further. Therefore, this study was aimed at analyzing the different existing conceptions of digital university in Ibero-America, via a systematic literature review and the analysis of the semantic field through a network analysis. This enabled us to identify what was understood by being a digital university from the perspective of different Ibero-American universities. Spanish keywords derived from the thesaurus -including “digital university”- were used in the search through diverse catalogs and databases, and documents of different kinds were found between 2007 and 2017. The literature review was based on the abstracts of the documents and we considered the creation of categories with diverse topics that represent how Ibero-America understands the digital university and with which restrictions has to deal with. The discussion incorporates the integration of those categories and topics into the digital university models that were previously identified. As a conclusion, a summary on the concept of digital university is presented and we point towards some remarks so that the conception is made a reality in its practice.

A set of emerging technologies have been approaching university education in the last decade as it had not happened in previous times. Many of these technologies can be considered as disruptive, since they are transforming and improving the training scenarios. Among the technologies that are taking greater momentum and importance we find augmented reality and virtual reality, as evidenced by various reports Horizon and Edutrens. Although the research on the integration of these technologies is in an early stage, we can affirm that those carried out so far demonstrate the great benefits they incorporate into the teaching-learning process. Among these contributions we can highlight the improvement of the motivation, the satisfaction and the performance of the students. In this article we will cover the current state of the University regarding ICT integration, focusing on the technologies that have been bursting with greater force in recent times. In addition, we will focus on two of the technologies “augmented reality and virtual reality” that are experiencing more impact in recent years, showing evidences and mentioning their implementation in the university environment.

The main goal of this article is to analyse the evolution and challenges of e-learning, with special emphasis on the need to move from a closed space-the virtual classroom-to incorporate adaptive tools that guarantee a much more personalized use. The article describes the evolution of e-learning from a pedagogical and technological point of view and shows how the training spaces have diversified beyond the virtual classroom. E-learning is incorporating more open pedagogical designs in which different people can share content, activities and experiences in formal and informal situations. Research in this field shows that students with less self-regulation capabilities tend to fail. On the contrary, the most successful students show greater efficiency and efficiency in self-regulated learning. Research on the role of students in virtual learning environments highlights the importance of self-regulation processes in the success of the results. Emerging technologies such as the use of adaptive systems, intelligent agents and the learning analytics can facilitate the processes of adaptation and self-regulation. The adoption of these technology can provide real-time information to learners and to facilitate strategies for scaffolding during the learning process.