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Comunicar Journal 51: E-Innovation in Higher Education (Vol. 25 - 2017)
Formative research in ubiquitous and virtual environments in Higher Education
Cristian Velandia-Mesa
Francisca-José Serrano-Pastor
María-José Martínez-Segura
The training in research is fundamental in the quality of higher education and within this context, the technological mediation becomes pivotal to reach the student-centered learning objectives in any moment and at any time. The findings of a study, whose purpose has been to evaluate the results of the formative research of two groups of students that have interacted in learning environments (E-learning y U-learning), are presented. The research follows a quasi-experimental study with a design of chronological series and multiple treatment, framed in three stages that were defined as referencing, systematization, and analysis. The sample has been constituted by 189 students of 4th year degree in Childhood Education, at Universidad El Bosque in Bogotá, Colombia. The results reveal that U-learning environments strengthen and consolidate the formative research as a permanent process to learn educational research through the personalization, adaptation, and the situational learning, marking meaningful differences with respect to E-learning environments during the systematization stage. The intervention with U-learning environments has brought challenges and needs in the academic curriculum such as strengthening the link between evaluation and educational research in the field of professional practice, as well as the inclusion of technology to the end of making it something natural, adaptable, and interoperable, in a way that students would use it without even thinking about it.
Keywords
Ubiquitous Learning, U-learning, virtual learning, formative research, educational research, higher education, teaching practice, systematization of experiences