TITLE:
Ubicua and Dialecta: Two Digital Environments That Support Teaching and Educational Innovation
AUTHORS:
Eduardo Peñalosa-Castro, Heriberto Zavaleta-Morales
KEYWORDS:
Learning Platforms, Digital Repositories, Collaborative Environments, Teaching Support, eLearning Dimensions
JOURNAL NAME:
Creative Education,
Vol.7 No.5,
April
29,
2016
ABSTRACT: Digital tools for learning at the Cuajimalpa Campus
of the Metropolitan Autonomous University of Mexico (UAM, for its acronym in Spanish)
are described: an educational platform (Ubicua)
and a learning repository (Dialecta).
The experience of developing these tools and the initial results of their implementation
are described. Ubicua is a learning platform
developed on the basis of a recent version of Moodle, and this development was designed taking into account a conceptual
structure consistent with the teaching methods of the Cuajimapa Campus of the University.
Accordingly, a set of dimensions were established as the platform’s underlying structure.
These dimensions were: operational simplicity, usability, cognitive load, wealth
of media, interactivity and sense of presence. On the other hand, Dialecta is a web application developed at
the University, which stores and makes digital material available to be used in
academic processes. Among other functions, it allows users to classify work, discuss
their uses, qualify them, and incorporate them into the courses created and taught
through the Ubicua platform. Both tools
are linked so that from the platform users can access and use any content in the Dialecta repository. The article reports
both the characteristics of these tools, their conceptual and instructional support,
as well as the methodology and the results of an evaluation conducted with students
and professors of the campus.