Initial evidence to validate an instructional design-derived evaluation scale in higher education programs

Instructional design has been a key strategy in ensuring the quality of higher education; therefore, it is essential to evaluate its effects on learning processes through the use of tools that comply with defined technical standards. Hence, the purpose of this study is to validate a scale used to evaluate the degree to which the students perceive the five aspects of instructional design: objectives, curricular content, learning activities, educational resources, and the existing evaluation strategy at the Costa Rica Institute of Technology (TEC). Through the use of an analytical and descriptive study, as well as qualitative and quantitative techniques, a Likert evaluation scale was designed. According to the results, the final version of the instrument consisted of 33 items and had a confidence coefficient of 0.923. In regards to the evidence associated to its validity, it was possible to verify the representability and relevance of the instructional design components and their factorial structure. The main conclusion obtained from this study is the importance of measuring, from a systemic perspective, the instructional design components, in classroom, blended learning and virtual courses with tools that are properly validated in order to guarantee the confidence level and valid interpretation of the results

Learning styles comparison based on a classification methodology

© © 2017 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.Learning styles have been used to explain students’ differences in approaching their learning, but there are still deficiencies in interpreting the results of their application, and there are authors that indicate that there are no elements that support their credibility in achievement-based education. For this reason, we proposed a methodology to analyze the results obtained after the application of the test of learning styles. Our methodology is designed in four steps: identify the population and its characteristics, establish the time for the samples, determine the existing conglomerates in the population and to extract the characteristics of the constructed conglomerates. To evaluate the this aproach, the methodology was applied and validated by the Felder and Silverman’s dichotomous test vs its diffuse version in an adult population in continuous formation and we found evidence that there are external aspects to those evaluated by the traditional learning styles instruments that could influence the changes of preferences over time

Escala de percepción de los componentes del diseño instruccional y protocolo de aplicación

Escala del diseño instruccional. Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica, 201

Teacher training model - towards a Collaborative Rubric Bank

© © 2017 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.Beyond providing alternatives to build rubrics, a group of researchers in Tecnológico de Costa Rica found the need to implement best practices in the definition and validation of evaluation rubrics, to encourage the creation of a Higher Education bank of assessment instruments. To achieve this goal, in the Tecnológico de Costa Rica, a teacher training process was established, which includes cooperative-collaborative work, scaffolding for the construction of knowledge and assessment tests carried out in the institutional LMS. The ultimate purpose is to build skills in teachers to design more robust rubrics and thus to form an institutional bank of evaluation instruments to share among colleagues. The first results meet the expectations established for the training model, as well as those of the teachers who participate in the training and use the rubrics for evaluation in their courses, as shown in the paper

Relación entre diseño instruccional y rendimiento académico en un curso presencial y bimodal de Matemática: Un estudio cuasiexperimental

La finalidad de esta investigación consistió en analizar la relación del diseño instruccional (DI) de un curso de Cálculo y Álgebra Lineal (CAL) en modalidad presencial y bimodal con el rendimiento académico del estudiantado. El diseño del estudio fue cuasiexperimental y se ejecutó en dos fases, una de planificación y otra de intervención, en una muestra de 64 estudiantes del Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica. Los datos de las variables del diseño instruccional: objetivos, contenidos curriculares, actividades aprendizaje, materiales educativos y estrategias de evaluación fueron recolectados en el 2013 con una escala tipo Likert mediante la técnica de la encuesta autoadministrada. Según los resultados de la t de student y de regresión lineal múltiple, se comprobó que existe una relación estadísticamente significativa entre la percepción del estudiantado sobre el diseño instruccional y su rendimiento académico. Con estos hallazgos se evidencia que una adecuada planificación del curso contribuye positivamente con el desempeño académico del estudiantado, sea en una modalidad presencial o bimodal. Por ello la principal recomendación es incentivar a los docentes a usar el diseño instruccional en la organización de un curso y valorar como una alternativa la opción bimodal por su flexibilidad de horarios, sobre todo al comprobar que el tipo de modalidad no es un factor significativo en el rendimiento en Matemática

Mortality from gastrointestinal congenital anomalies at 264 hospitals in 74 low-income, middle-income, and high-income countries: a multicentre, international, prospective cohort study

Summary Background Congenital anomalies are the fifth leading cause of mortality in children younger than 5 years globally. Many gastrointestinal congenital anomalies are fatal without timely access to neonatal surgical care, but few studies have been done on these conditions in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). We compared outcomes of the seven most common gastrointestinal congenital anomalies in low-income, middle-income, and high-income countries globally, and identified factors associated with mortality. Methods We did a multicentre, international prospective cohort study of patients younger than 16 years, presenting to hospital for the first time with oesophageal atresia, congenital diaphragmatic hernia, intestinal atresia, gastroschisis, exomphalos, anorectal malformation, and Hirschsprung’s disease. Recruitment was of consecutive patients for a minimum of 1 month between October, 2018, and April, 2019. We collected data on patient demographics, clinical status, interventions, and outcomes using the REDCap platform. Patients were followed up for 30 days after primary intervention, or 30 days after admission if they did not receive an intervention. The primary outcome was all-cause, in-hospital mortality for all conditions combined and each condition individually, stratified by country income status. We did a complete case analysis. Findings We included 3849 patients with 3975 study conditions (560 with oesophageal atresia, 448 with congenital diaphragmatic hernia, 681 with intestinal atresia, 453 with gastroschisis, 325 with exomphalos, 991 with anorectal malformation, and 517 with Hirschsprung’s disease) from 264 hospitals (89 in high-income countries, 166 in middleincome countries, and nine in low-income countries) in 74 countries. Of the 3849 patients, 2231 (58·0%) were male. Median gestational age at birth was 38 weeks (IQR 36–39) and median bodyweight at presentation was 2·8 kg (2·3–3·3). Mortality among all patients was 37 (39·8%) of 93 in low-income countries, 583 (20·4%) of 2860 in middle-income countries, and 50 (5·6%) of 896 in high-income countries (p<0·0001 between all country income groups). Gastroschisis had the greatest difference in mortality between country income strata (nine [90·0%] of ten in lowincome countries, 97 [31·9%] of 304 in middle-income countries, and two [1·4%] of 139 in high-income countries; p≤0·0001 between all country income groups). Factors significantly associated with higher mortality for all patients combined included country income status (low-income vs high-income countries, risk ratio 2·78 [95% CI 1·88–4·11], p<0·0001; middle-income vs high-income countries, 2·11 [1·59–2·79], p<0·0001), sepsis at presentation (1·20 [1·04–1·40], p=0·016), higher American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) score at primary intervention (ASA 4–5 vs ASA 1–2, 1·82 [1·40–2·35], p<0·0001; ASA 3 vs ASA 1–2, 1·58, [1·30–1·92], p<0·0001]), surgical safety checklist not used (1·39 [1·02–1·90], p=0·035), and ventilation or parenteral nutrition unavailable when needed (ventilation 1·96, [1·41–2·71], p=0·0001; parenteral nutrition 1·35, [1·05–1·74], p=0·018). Administration of parenteral nutrition (0·61, [0·47–0·79], p=0·0002) and use of a peripherally inserted central catheter (0·65 [0·50–0·86], p=0·0024) or percutaneous central line (0·69 [0·48–1·00], p=0·049) were associated with lower mortality. Interpretation Unacceptable differences in mortality exist for gastrointestinal congenital anomalies between lowincome, middle-income, and high-income countries. Improving access to quality neonatal surgical care in LMICs will be vital to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 3.2 of ending preventable deaths in neonates and children younger than 5 years by 2030

El reto de ser digitalmente competente en el siglo XXI

La alfabetización digital ha cambiado a lo largo de los años; hace muchos años estetérmino se refería a la habilidad de utilizar las computadoras para realizar funcionesbásicas de escribir cartas, enviar correos y usar Internet para buscar información.No obstante, la revolución tecnológica ha cambiado la dinámica de las personas y ahora se habla de competencias digitales y no solo de alfabetización

Formación de docentes para la creación de cursos virtuales en la enseñanza del español como segunda lengua

Con el fin de aprovechar el potencial ofrecido por las TIC en la educación, es necesario crear propuestas de cursos virtuales que permitan ampliar la oferta educativa en las instituciones de educación superior, lo cual representa una ventaja competitiva para las universidades. De esta idea, se diseñó la investigación sobre un programa para formar profesores en la creación de cursos virtuales, en el área específica de enseñanza del Español como Segunda Lengua. La investigación es cualitativa. El objetivo es proponer un plan de formación docente para la creación de cursos virtuales, en la enseñanza del español como segunda lengua, a partir de criterios pedagógicos establecidos por expertos. Para ello, se tomaron en cuenta los siguientes criterios: el diseño instruccional basado en el contexto y en la necesidad de capacitación, las estrategias de aprendizaje y evaluación, la creación de rúbricas y la confección de material didáctico. El estudio se llevó a cabo con docentes del programa Técnico en la Enseñanza del Español como Segunda Lengua, del Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica, quienes previo a la capacitación, no tenían ninguna formación virtual. Entre los resultados de este proyecto, cada docente logró crear su diseño para un curso virtual a futuro, a partir de los criterios anteriormente mencionados

Escala para evaluar el diseño instruccional en educación superior = Instructional design scale and application protocol

Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica. Vicerrectoría de Vida Estudiantil y Servicios Académicos. Departamento de Orientación y Psicología; Vicerrectoría de Docencia. Escuela de Computación, 2015En el 2014 concluyó un estudio que evaluaba el aprendizaje de los estudiantes en un curso bimodal y presencial y su relación con el diseño instruccional de un curso de Matemática en el Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica (TEC). Para medir la percepción de los estudiantes se construyó una escala tipo Likert enfocada en los cinco componentes de un diseño instruccional: objetivos, contenidos del curso, actividades de aprendizaje, recursos didácticos y estrategia de evaluación. Además de algunos ítems para obtener datos demográficos y académicos de los participantes, los cuales se pueden ampliar según los intereses de docentes, investigadores o administradores. Antes de la aplicación de la escala del diseño instruccional las investigadoras recomiendan el siguiente procedimiento para garantizar una interpretación apropiada de sus resultados.A study assessing student learning in a bimodal and classroom course, and its relationship with the instructional design of a Mathematics course in the Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica (TEC) was completed in 2014. To measure the students’ perception, a Likert-type scale was constructed, focusing on the five components of an instructional design: objectives, course contents, learning activities, educational resources and assessment strategy. In addition, some items to obtain demographic and academic data of the participants, which may be extended according to the interests of teachers, researchers or administrators. Before the instructional design scale is applied, the researchers recommend the following procedure to guarantee an adequate interpretation of results