Preparation of the university faculty to face the challenges of virtual education in postgraduate studies

Abstract

The objective of this article is to design an integrative conception of postgraduate education in order to prepare the university faculty for the virtualization process in postgraduate education. For the construction of this proposal, the systematization of theory and practice was used as a qualitative research methodology, which led to an ordering and reconstruction of experiences that made it possible to explain the logic of the process experienced through stages in time to reach the integrative conception. This conception had as distinctive features a design of a system of three courses and two postgraduate trainings that link the didactic and the technological, implementing the principles of the Distance Education Model of Higher Education, preparing the teacher from postgraduate management to produce Open Educational Resources; promoting in all cases a motivating climate through the implementation of innovative methodologies such as Challenge-Based Learning and Gamification. The results of the implementation of this integrative conception of the postgraduate degree were evident in the increase in quantity and quality of the virtual classrooms created in our university evaluated based on a system of indicators, as well as the growth in terms of academic programs approved to be taught in distance mode. Its implementation has allowed our university teachers to be placed at a qualitatively higher level to face the challenges demanded by the virtualization of learning in the world.