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

The importance of the present study comes from the methodological possibilities derived for a complex and fundamental area within health sciences, such as basic life support in general, and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in particular. The objective of the present study is to analyze the effect of an serious game (SG), through the use of Virtual Reality (VR) goggles, on university students. This is a comparative study with a pre-post evaluation, with students enrolled in the Primary Education Degree, which analyzes the effect of an education game (with VR goggles) on CPR training. Among the results, we highlight that the mean quality of the chest compressions obtained previous results of 30% (SD 28), while the latter result was 47% (SD 27) [differences in means of 17% (95% CI 7-26), p<0.001]. Likewise, the training through VR decreased the performance times of each of the skills evaluated from the chain of survival, except for the start of the chest compressions. In conclusion, we underline that the SG analyzed, through VR goggles, improved the performance of the CPR maneuvers. In addition, the educational use of VR made it possible for university students enrolled in the Primary Education Degree to obtain not only better theoretical-conceptual results, but also allowed them to acquire competencies and skills related to CPR.

The field of education, in general, and higher education, in particular, has been strongly affected by the digital transformations that have had an impact on the life-long, life-wide, and life-deep learning processes that take place throughout our lives. A challenge associated with these transformations is the linking of learning experiences, connecting the needs, motivations and interests of learners with educational opportunities to promote learning with greater meaning and personal value. The objective of this work was to design, implement and evaluate a digitally mediated educational practice in higher education based on the pedagogical usage of identity artefacts made by the learners themselves. The design of the pedagogical practice comprises four phases: elaboration of identity artefacts; personal-academic linking; fieldwork and development of an artefact (video) posted on a YouTube channel, as well as self-assessment of what was learnt. 64 university students, aged between 20 and 32 (M = 21.5) participated. The results obtained permit the illustration and analysis of the identity artefacts produced, their relationship with the chosen topics, as well as what was learnt according to the perception of the students and the teaching team by means of an evaluation rubric. It concludes by highlighting the evidence of this educational practice in the promotion of academic, personal and procedural learning. These factors are discussed using the existing literature on the educational uses of identity artefacts as starting point and subsequently suggesting some future lines of research. 

Technology-mediated communication, through text, voice, or audiovisual content, supported the education system during the COVID-19 pandemic, and allowed students and teachers to collaborate in digital learning scenarios. This article presents the results of the research project whose problematizing question was: how were communicative interactions and collaborative learning promoted in UVirtual Académica platform of the University of Medellín, when the technology-mediated education model was adopted? The development of the research followed a qualitative paradigm with a hermeneutic approach. The techniques and instruments for the collection of information were the literature review, the content analysis of virtual environments, and the semi-structured interview with university professors. The results were analyzed considering the social, affective, and cognitive dimensions, which made it possible to recognize how communication and feedback guide the teaching and learning processes. Additionally, collaborative learning didactic strategies that foster communicative interactions between students and professors were identified, finding greater effectiveness when these three strategies are combined: classroom project, tutoring, and peer-assessment activities. It was concluded that collaborative learning strengthens communication processes in digital learning scenarios and favors the formation of virtual communities and networks for academic and emotional support among members of the educational community.

In order that online feedback plays its role regarding learning, students need to engage with it. However, few studies have addressed the role of individual differences in interaction with some characteristics of educational intervention in students’ cognitive engagement with online feedback. This study explores potential relationships between motivational orientation, control of learning beliefs, self-efficacy and success expectancy with cognitive engagement with feedback. In addition, it is analyzed whether the possibilities of resubmitting the assignment, based on the feedback received, generate different levels of cognitive engagement. A quasi-experiment with pre-post measures was designed. There were 87 students who had the possibility to rework the assignment from the feedback received during the process and to resubmit it, and 80 students from the control group with no possibility of rework. The results highlight that there were no significant differences in the incidence of motivational orientation relative to cognitive engagement with feedback, but all students showed a high level of learning motivational orientation. Beliefs about learning process control, self-efficacy, and expectations for success impacted on cognitive engagement with feedback received at the end of the activity. Providing feedback during the assignment mediated this influence.

Creativity is valuable to humanity, so different governments have sought to promote it through education. Despite these efforts, educational models are based on traditional methods that hinder creativity. It is essential to design environments that promote creative potential through the context characteristics and the agents' perspectives involved. Based on educational design research, we set up a virtual learning environment that promotes collaborative creativity in university students. We carried out the research in an annual course on educational psychology, where students organized into teams developed creative proposals for intervention. We iterated this course with four generations of students (n=81), in which the prototype of the virtual environment was designed, implemented, and evaluated. We evaluated the prototype from two dimensions: 1) the creativity perceived in the intervention proposals; 2) the collaboration that arose in the virtual learning environment. We observed that the most creative proposals corresponded to those made by the last generation. Likewise, the students who interacted the most with digital tools were those from the same cohort. We concluded that to promote creativity, it is essential that the environment is characterized by having digital tools familiar to the student, encourages everyone's creativity, fosters dialogue, provides clarity regarding creative tasks, and that the teacher advises the process.

Interactive technology offers new opportunities to design dialogic learning spaces and scaffolds with the aid of visual icons. These technological environments can support the construction of open-ended visual cognitive digital maps, which portray an external representation of scientific knowledge that could foster the meaningful resolution of socio-scientific challenges. In this context, this research aims to study the impact of digital cognitive maps on: a) meaningful learning of scientific concepts and b) complex representation of scientific concepts in teacher education. A case study with multi-method analysis was designed. The cognitive maps of 47 teacher education students are analysed, both quantitatively and qualitatively, and before-after their participation in an educational experience that enhances the collaborative construction of digital cognitive maps in order to solve a socio-scientific challenge. The results show that the overall educational experience and, specifically, the scientific inquiry visual scaffolds embedded into the technological environment have a positive impact on learning scientific knowledge and inquiry skills. Furthermore, outcomes also indicate that the experience enriches the students’ representation strategies of complex scientific knowledge and that the construction of cognitive maps with a network architecture increases after the educational experience. Finally, educational implications on the use of interactive technology and cognitive maps for promoting significant learning of content knowledge in pre-service teachers are discussed.

Learning in digital environments faces current challenges of a different nature, including theoretical challenges. In this sense, the scientific literature on the Third Generation Activity Theory shows the need for further progress and discussion in light of digital technologies. This paper applies the Expansive Learning Theory to the evaluation of an online training intervention aimed at future distance education professionals. In order to do this, a quantitative ethnographic method is followed and 158 discursive units that occur in asynchronous forums in a digital environment are subject to study by applying an epistemic network analysis (ENA). The results show four discursive profiles with significant differences between teams: empathic-conceptual discourse, representative-conceptual discourse, critical discourse and comprehensive-conceptual discourse. Expansive learning actions associated with discursive profiles and significant differences based on gender are identified between the teams T1(mixed)-T2(women), T1(mixed)-T3(women), T2(women)-T3(women), T1(mixed)-T5(men), T2(women)-T5(men) and T3(women)-T5(men). The paper represents an original contribution to advancing knowledge for the development of expansive learning theory in education and a methodological and empirical contribution on the evidence of learning mediated by digital technologies in higher education. It contributes to future research of gender-sensitive digital learning environments.

The role of digital technology today is presumed unquestionable in all spheres of human activity and, especially, in the educational setting. Despite this fact, there is limited integration of these tools in the context of higher education. Thus, this paper aims to analyze: a) the university professors of Health Sciences´ beliefs about the presence of digital resources in their work environment; and b) the role that these resources play in the professional updating process and in the teaching performance of this group. This study has been framed in the tradition of Case Study research (qualitative paradigm). Specifically, five professors from the University of A Coruña have participated and built the case, because of their excellent qualifications in the Docentia Program. The data collection technique used was the semi-structured interview. The data was analyzed with the support of the Atlas.ti program (v.8.1) and through content analysis strategies. The results show that professors conceive digital technologies, in general, as a positive element in their professional environment. The participants consider that they have a medium level of digital competence. Also, they are aware of their lack of training in the use of digital tools, especially regarding the creation and editing of content.

COVID-19 motivated profound transformations in the educational field, accelerating the use of new technologies for teaching and learning. Teachers and students were forced to attend remote environments, adapting education practices to these contexts. With the improvement in the pandemic scenario, teachers and students faced the increasing of a challenging environment, blended teaching and learning. In this context, metaverse rises as a natural approach to blended learning once they propose the extension of the real world to virtual worlds. This paper aims to present the use of a metaverse as a learning environment for blended learning. Through a quasi-experimental study in a class in the undergraduate degree, students evaluate it considering their perceptions and motivation to use the metaverse as a learning environment in a blended context. As a result, we identified positive evidence that students felt the metaverse was a suitable learning environment for blended learning, motivating them. Therefore, from lessons learned from the pandemic, this research brought a significant contribution by presenting an approach of using metaverses as learning environments to support blended learning necessities.

The pandemic has given great prominence to what we call online education or digital distance education. The so-called Information and Knowledge Society has been faced with a major challenge for which, as has happened at other times in history, distance education has been a lifeline. The unforeseen situation of not being able to attend educational institutions physically has been a challenge for many teachers who had never experienced online teaching or, even, technology-enhanced teaching. This article analyses the type of teaching that was generated in this period of time, the different methodologies used during the pandemic, and the levels of digital competence of university teachers to face the assumption of more innovative teaching models. As a result, it is observed that more active methodologies stand out, supported by technologies sometimes classical and sometimes emergent, which go beyond the "zoomification" of lessons, managing time and spaces in a more creative and efficient way. Teachers and institutions have understood that digital education requires the development of this type of methodology, but for this it is necessary to increase the levels of digital competence of teachers, which results in a better educational use of technologies, devices and tools that they have at their fingertips.