The main contribution of this study is the definition of rules for the identification of learning styles by merging the monitored information of the behavior, performance and emotional state of students in a virtual learning environment, based on theoretical foundations of cognitive psychology and learning styles. We revised different theories and emotional models, learning styles and educational technological platform types. As a result of the study, we selected behavior patterns, performance and emotional state, as well as formulas and rules that allow the integration of such patterns for the automatic identification of learning styles. The Moodle administration system of knowledge will work as a base for the validation of the proposed rules through a case study in a future research.

This paper presents the results of a research project related to the learning styles of postgraduate distance learning students from the University of Tamaulipas, Mexico. These postgraduate studies were created in 1996: nowadays, 14 generations have graduated from the Master of Human Resources Development; 13 generations, from the Master of Quality Management; and 8 from the Master in Educational Technology. The instrument used in this research was created by Whiteley and is based on the model of multiple intelligences developed by Gardner and the neuro-linguistic programming model by Bandler and Grinder. The research was conducted with a sample of 72 participants, who represent one hundred percent of the students enrolled. The results showed that the most prevalent learning styles are logical and social, and the auditory and physical learning styles were the less predominant. Consequently, it was able to recommend content, resources and learning activities for each learning style.

This qualitative study uses the content analysis method of Newman, Webb, and Cochrane to analyze the contents of the interactions of 21 discussion forums; we succeeded in identifying different types of critical thinking. Carried out in a private institution in the north of México, we sampled three groups with a total of 74 students. Discussion forums were organized using the taxonomy of Socratic questions in order to increase critical thinking. We conclude with guidelines to design quality discussion forums to increase and develop critical thinking in virtual education.

We present an educational innovation strategy that consists on the implementation of a virtual investigation project in biology. In university education, some lab practices are prohibitive due to high costs. For distance university education, there are few virtual educational resources that can be used instead. In this paper we share the experience of using the dose-response simulator 1.0. The simulator has been developed in our lab to explore the usability and the learning levels achieved by the students. An exploratory study was conducted with a group of students from the Research Methods I course of the Bachelors degree biology program. The work corresponds to a virtual, structured, semi-closed type, guided by specialized teaching supervision. Two levels of knowledge were evaluated: the management of the program and the understanding of theoretical knowledge. 69.2% of the students stated that using the simulator was easy. According with Blooms taxonomy, from 100 to 92.3% performed well in activities at the apply and analyze levels, and 76.9 to 61.5% at the synthesize level. 7.7% did not adapt at all. The results indicate a high level of student learning. Simulators are an alternative for teaching when lab practices are expensive.

The significance that working memory has in the performance of various highly demanding cognitive tasks such as reading comprehension and, in turn, the impact it has on student performance has been examined in numerous studies applied to different levels of education. Therefore, standardized tests properly supported have been implemented in order to measure the degree of relationship between working memory and reading comprehension. The aim of this study is to assess such relationship by using reading span tests and cloze tests due to the fact that these instruments are not frequently used in conjunction in Hispanic American contexts. All of this takes place despite the practical development, application and analysis of tests made with questions embedded with (cloze) answers in open virtual learning platforms like Moodle.The results refer to a correlation for those over nineteen years of age, highly significant for women and significant for men, in part due to a higher proportion of undergraduates in both the instructional reading level as well as for fourth reading span level.

The goal of this article was to investigate the perception of university students with visual impairment (USVI) in regards to the development of their digital skills. Ten USVIs participated in the study; they were enrolled in Bachelors programs in the 2014-02 cycle. We evaluated the progress students perceived in digital skills related to social and collaborative learning, the search and treatment of information, the development of interpersonal relationships within the university context, and the use of virtual tools and social communication of the university. Results suggest that, with the exception of those related to interpersonal relations, the USVIs perceive little advance in their digital skills. With an Anova test of repeated measurements, we determined that the perception of USVI on digital skills concerning interpersonal relationships is significantly higher than the reported ones in other skills. We conclude that the USVI do not perceive an improvement in their digital skills, in particular those of social and collaborative learning, as well as in their use of digital tools.

The new creation of study programs in the Faculty of Statistics and Informatics of the University of Veracruz adheres to the institutional guideline to promote constant learning improvement centered in students, with the application of new information and communication technologies (ICTs). The study that we present is an exploratory one with a mixed approach and analyzes the educational experience of telecommunications principles pertaining to the recent educational program of the Bachelor degree on Networks and Computer Services. Our goal is to show the perception of students regarding the inclusion of collaborative work with digital tools. For this, we used the wave generation computer programs, oscilloscope and the virtual classroom that recorded the observations. Data collection was applied, through a mixed type survey, to a group of 28 students who took the course. The results indicate that the group has a positive acceptance towards collaborative work through the use of ICTs as an integral part of their professional training.

During the 2013-2014 school cycle, the Mexican government started the Mi Compu.MX program and gave a personal computer to children of fifth and sixth grade of primary education in the states of Sonora, Tabasco and Colima; the goal was to reduce the digital and social gap between families and to contribute to the improvement of learning conditions of children and the updating of ways of teaching. To determine if the program had an impact in the improvement in the teaching ways, we made the present study with the purpose to make a diagnosis to measure the level of integration of portable computers with the pedagogical practices of teachers of Sonora who participated in the program. We followed a quantitative methodology of exploratory-descriptive type, in which the teacher digital abilities were measured through a self-applied questionnaire, as well as an online simulator. Results show that teachers slightly exceed 60% of hits, in most of the computer skill tests and that they perform the pedagogical practices on an average level up to 2.1 points from expert level.

The new science laboratories for High School level in National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) allow performing educational activities that promote learning trough conceptual and representational transformation and collaboration, and are supported in the integration of experimentation with the use of communication and information technologies (ICT) in the subjects of Biology, Physics and Chemistry. In this article we present the results of the ways the new laboratories are used and the type of technological resources that teachers use in the introductory stage (first semester of use). The results show an initial process of adaptability and resource utilization, and although most people simply transfer their usual practice, others have begun to incorporate different resources into their teaching practice and increase their confidence in the operation of the laboratory. This advance reveals that the teachers have a better understanding of the educational approach that comes together with the project of the new laboratories, which would help them develop better processes and strategies to incorporate the ICTs in their science teaching activities.

A mixed study research, this paper analyses the perception of the college students about online safety, considered one of the areas of digital skills. We rely on the Ikanos project descriptors of the Basque Institute of Professional Qualifications and Vocational Training (2014). We considered the four topics: protecting devices, protecting data and digital identity, protecting health and protecting the environment (INTEF, 2014). In collecting the data, we used an online survey and a semi-structured individual interview. From the results, millennials uses basic safety practices, such as using antivirus, password management, configuration settings in the Web tools, etc. Regarding the digital identity and health, it detected the need to promote the proper use of personal data and the media habits. For the environmental protection, it is essential promote awareness about the computers and electronic devices, energy management, recycling and technological waste. Finally, this research seeks to contribute to the discussion on safety and the media consumption within the framework for the development of digital skills.

Introduction of video games to education has brought a series of possibilities, but also problems and doubts regarding true potentialities. This integrated process in the progressive digitalization of classrooms has put into evidence a series of issues on how and what for video games can be used for learning. The purpose of this study is to create a little map of this topic, in which we will approach the notion of Serious Games and some learning experiences that have used these tools in educational contexts. We place some basic notions regarding the possibilities of teaching with video games and formulate criticisms and considerations on the path to follow in coming years.

Distance education may be considered as a tool that promotes the formation and updating of the human capital within the organizations, since it allows workers to keep a continuous education to acquire abilities without neglecting their work responsibilities. The digital revolution has caused that information that used to be manipulated in paper, today has a tendency of been created in electronic/digital document formats within the organizations. Because of this, it is imperative for the organizations to have highly qualified personnel for the handling of this type of digital documentation and learn about the technological processes involved and the legislations for each case. In this study we present the experience between the Autonomous University of San Luis Potosí and the National Institute of Statistic and Geography regarding the development of distance education course focused on the handling of electronic documents for the personnel responsible of document management. We also described the development, execution and general evaluation of the course through the PRADDIE model (2012); to catalog the used instruments in the implementation we used the Laurillard model (1993) modified by Curtis (1997); for the evaluation of the technological tools we used the ACTIONS model by Bates (1955); and to measure the achieved learning by the students we used the Kirkpatrick model (1994).

This study has the purpose to evaluate and improve distance education courses on the field of human formation, offered by a private University in western Mexico. Different approaches have shown the need to use an observation and analysis tool created for this purpose. We then started the task taking as a starting point the model proposed by Gunawardena, Lowe and Anderson (1997), based in the analysis of the interactions between the students in a course. This qualitative approach is complemented by another quantitative approach based on what is proposed by Padilla and Hernández (2012). Once taken the option, we decided to perform an application that allowed us to measure its relevance. The pilot test was applied in seven of the ten courses offered in the first semester of 2015, corresponding to three different subjects. We analyzed a sample of the different pedagogical resources used by the teachers. Given the results, we considered adequate to appeal to the model by Gunawardena, Lowe and Anderson, for the analysis of interactions of a student in a distance course, in combination with the collection of quantitative data, which contributes with new perspectives and enriches the information.

Curricular flexibility in educational programs given by higher education institutions is an obligated answer to face inclusion, coverage, equality and quality present challenges. This implies to design and develop projects with modern methodologies and centered in students, that allows moving on from rigid or traditional models to flexible and innovational ones. With the new curricular reform called: “Generation of the knowledge with values”, the Autonomous University of Tamaulipas pretends to offer online the thirteen subjects for basic education program of a degree level, and provide the students with the possibility of studying anywhere and anytime; after subjects are accredited they will be able to join the professional career of their choosing in traditional or presence based modality. This article presents the methodology designed for the implementation of this project, which integrates the following stages: warranties of accessibility and availability of distance educational systems; formation and specialization of online tutors; instructional design for e-learning; evaluation mechanisms and follow up of educational processes; and project operation mechanisms.

This study has the purpose to evaluate and improve distance education courses on the field of human formation, offered by a private University in western Mexico. Different approaches have shown the need to use an observation and analysis tool created for this purpose. We then started the task taking as a starting point the model proposed by Gunawardena, Lowe and Anderson (1997), based in the analysis of the interactions between the students in a course. This qualitative approach is complemented by another quantitative approach based on what is proposed by Padilla and Hernández (2012). Once taken the option, we decided to perform an application that allowed us to measure its relevance. The pilot test was applied in seven of the ten courses offered in the first semester of 2015, corresponding to three different subjects. We analyzed a sample of the different pedagogical resources used by the teachers. Given the results, we considered adequate to appeal to the model by Gunawardena, Lowe and Anderson, for the analysis of interactions of a student in a distance course, in combination with the collection of quantitative data, which contributes with new perspectives and enriches the information.

In this article we present the results of a study on how digital tablets are implemented as mediating tools in basic education to promote the construction of meaningful learning and the development of collaborative skills. The research was methodologically designed as an intrinsic case study focused on the work of students in fourth grade in the Centro Educativo Monarca, a private school located in Zamora, Michoacán. Direct observation, document analysis and analysis of apps in digital tablets were used as instruments for data collection, allowing a reflection on the knowledge construction process and its challenges, and teacher intervention as manager of the learning environment. The results show that the use of tablets, through their applications, drives a real approach to knowledge and to the ability to create and share knowledge, expanding access routes to information and allowing the organization and communication of what is learned. The document addresses to possible courses of action to further explore digital content developed by students in relation to the development of creative and critical thinking skills.

The goal of this study was to comment, analyze and categorize in a descriptive way the generational lines and application of knowledge (GLAK) for various products of scientific research conducted in Mexico in relation to the integration of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to the educational process. The main objectives were: to identify the specific type of population the research would be directed to, to compare the types of population with the greater and lesser number of research studies made, to compare the GLAK with greater and lesser number of studies, and to identify emerging fields of investigation. The methodology considered inclusion criteria in order to select repositories and types of documents to be analyzed (a total of 470 research papers were selected). The GLAKs upon which the research studies were to be conducted were also defined. Within the results, we found that the education levels with the greater and lesser number of students with regard to higher education and preschool education, respectively. The main voids of knowledge were found in the management and quality areas of educational programs, as well as educational policies related to ICTs. The emerging fields of research were related to the education of older adults, indigenous populations, and students with special needs.

The article stems from a study based on the assumptions of connectivism, whose objective was to understand how ICTs are included in the learning of university students. A type of quantitative and transversal work with a descriptive scope was applied to a random stratified sample of 684 undergraduate students from a public university in the state of Jalisco, Mexico. We include the validation of the instrument that helped collect the data which, having been analyzed, indicates that the inclusion of ICT is made when students use them to move from the confusing to the definite state, and they are applied to the learning problems that involve identifying important information, as well as the reliability of the site that was consulted. 82% of participants have searched for information in scientific databases, and they relate it by applying it to the knowledge acquired through electronic means, sometimes using tools and giving meaning to data by developing graphic organizers or summaries, in which the students express what they have understood. Connectivism was an appropriate reference to interpret the inclusion of ICTs, as well as to recognize the influence of the context in which actions are developed.