A technique for designing glossary activities with facial authentication

Nowadays, one of the key challenges for distance education is to be able to verify the students’ identity in order to check if they are actually who they claim to be when they are doing their online tasks and to avoid identity thief. This can be achieved through facial authentication software. In e-learning, thanks to this technology there is a way to confirm that the students are not committing fraud in their studies and besides to improve this kind of education by equaling its validity and prestige to traditional face-to-face education. The goal of this research is to avoid fake users that perform educational tasks on behalf of others in the Learning Management Systems (LMSs), and more specifically to develop a new technique to design activities with glossaries that properly allow control of the student learning process through facial authentication software. The presented technique is composed of several steps that guide instructors in the elaboration of this kind of activities. This work has used Moodle platform for the experimentation, and analyzes the experience of 67 students with the activities designed with the presented technique

Exploring the influence of facial verification software on student academic performance in online learning environments

In spite of the advances in technology in the e-learning field during the last decades, there is still a gap of software and tools that actually improve the assessment of this kind of education by preventing students from cheating when they perform their activities online. Currently, most learning management systems do not offer enough tools or characteristics to check that students are who they assure when they carry out their exercises or online tests. Facial verification software can be considered an interesting tool to answer this need. This facial software helps to verify the identity of the students when they perform their activities, with the intention of confirming whether they are who they claim to be. However, its use could modify the academic results of the students due to psychological factors (e.g. they could feel spied, ashamed or too controlled). The aim of this article is to investigate whether the utilization of facial verification software can modify the academic performance of students in their online activities. In this work, the grades of 70 master students were analyzed and the conclusions pointed out that the academic performance obtained by the students is similar for both groups: those who have used facial authentication and those who did not use it

Teachers' digital competence to assist students with functional diversity: Identification of factors through logistic regression methods

We are experiencing a serious health crisis due to COVID-19 that has a major impact on the field of education. The educational system therefore needs to be updated and innovated, with the addition of digital resources, to adapt the teaching and learning processes to students with disabilities. To meet the goal of high-quality education, teachers must have adequate digital competence to face the educational demands that are placed on them. Therefore, the purposes of this study are: to know the teachers' knowledge about digital resources to support students with disabilities (O1); at each educational stage (O2), identify the variables that have a significant impact on the acquisition of teacher competence (O3); propose a selection of useful ICT resources for each type of disability (O4). An ex post facto design was used with 1194 teachers from Andalusia (Spain). The results showed the medium-low level of the teaching staff, especially in the higher education stage. In addition, gender, motivation, attitude and having students with special needs are determining factors in the development of teacher knowledge. The results highlight the urgent need for teachers to be trained in digital resources. We hope that the range of resources proposed in this study will help teachers enhance their teaching practice

A proposal to improve the authentication process in m-health environments

Special Section: Mission Critical Public-Safety Communications: Architectures, Enabling Technologies, and Future Applications One of the challenges of mobile health is to provide a way of maintaining privacy in the access to the data. Especially, when using ICT for providing access to health services and information. In these scenarios, it is essential to determine and verify the identity of users to ensure the security of the network. A way of authenticating the identity of each patient, doctor or any stakeholder involved in the process is to use a software application that analyzes the face of them through the cams integrated in their devices. The selection of an appropriate facial authentication software application requires a fair comparison between alternatives through a common database of face images. Users usually carry out authentication with variations in their aspects while accessing to health services. This paper presents both 1) a database of facial images that combines the most common variations that can happen in the participants and 2) an algorithm that establishes different levels of access to the data based on data sensitivity levels and the accuracy of the authentication

Which is the Digital Competence of Each Member of Educational Community to Use the Computer? Which Predictors Have a Greater Infuence?

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of digital resources and virtual platforms is even more essential to continue the educational process, either in person or online, affecting all the members involved in the teaching–learning process of the students. Therefore, this study is aimed: (1) to know and compare the digital competence of the agents that are the main integrators of the educational community (parents, teachers, students) about the use of the computers, according to gender and educational stage (Pre-school, Primary and Secondary Education stages); and (2) to identify significant predictors that affect the acquisition of this competence. An ex-post-facto design was used with a sample of 786 participants from Andalusia (Spain). Research methods such as contrasts of means and multiple linear regression analysis were used. The results showed high average levels of basic digital competences for all the agents involved. A gender gap was found between mothers and fathers of students, with higher scores for the latter group. In addition, the use of videogames, the parents' academic background and the use of digital tablets or Google+ are the most significant predictors that affect the acquisition of this competence.Funding for open access charge: Universidad de Málaga / CBUA

Teachers' digital competence to assist students with functional diversity: Identification of factors through logistic regression methods

We are experiencing a serious health crisis due to COVID-19 that has a major impact on the field of education. The educational system therefore needs to be updated and innovated, with the addition of digital resources, to adapt the teaching and learning processes to students with disabilities. To meet the goal of high quality education, teachers must have adequate digital competence to face the educational demands that are placed on them. Therefore, the purposes of this study are: to know the teachers' knowledge about digital resources to support students with disabilities (O1); at each educational stage (O2), identify the variables that have a significant impact on the acquisition of teacher competence (O3); propose a selection of useful ICT resources for each type of disability (O4). An ex post facto design was used with 1194 teachers from Andalusia (Spain). The results showed the medium-low level of the teaching staff, especially in the higher education stage. In addition, gender, motivation, attitude and having students with special needs are determining factors in the development of teacher knowledge. The results highlight the urgent need for teachers to be trained in digital resources. We hope that the range of resources proposed in this study will help teachers enhance their teaching practic

Digital Competence of university students with disabilities and factors that determine it. A descriptive, inferential and multivariate study

Taking into account that 15% of the world population suffers from some type of disability, few investigations have been concerned with knowing the level of digital competenceDigital Competence that students with functional diversity have. This research is based on an initial sample of 17,301 newly enrolled university students from the Andrés Bello University (Chile), of which 650 are selected for having some type of disability. Its main objective is to know the level of self-perception in the digital competenceDigital Competence of university students with disabilities and the variables that explain it. To do this, an evaluation instrument consisting of 6 dimensions (technological literacy, information search and processing, critical thinking, problem solving and decision making, communication and collaboration, digital citizenship, and communication and collaboration) is designed and applied. To calculate the validity of the instrument, the partial least squares (PLS) method is applied through structural equation modeling. Next, data is provided regarding the level of Digital CompetenceDigital Competence of the students and if there are differences between the types of disability. Finally, the data is subjected to a logistic regression to estimate the relationship between the dependent variable (digital competenceDigital Competence) and a set of independent variables (sociodemographic variables). The results reveal that the instrument used shows high levels of reliability, which guarantees its use in students with disabilities. Likewise, the average level of digital competenceDigital Competence is medium low. Finally, tThe factors that affect this variable are discussed and the necessary structuring of digital literacy plans is highlighted. Finally, this paper discusses new techniques for diagnosing students' digital skills

Construction of an instrument on the digital competences of the teacher to use YouTube as a didactic resource : analysis of reliability and validity

El objetivo de este estudio fue la creación de un instrumento sobre la competencia digital del docente en la utilización de YouTube como herramienta de aprendizaje. Concretamente, se trazaron los siguientes objetivos específicos: validez de contenido, validez de comprensión, validez de constructo (análisis factorial exploratorio y confirmatorio), validez convergente y discriminante, invarianza por género (masculino-femenino) y tipo de centro (urbano-rural) y determinar la consistencia interna a través de diferentes coeficientes de fiabilidad. El instrumento contó con una versión inicial de 30 ítems clasificados en tres factores: DIM. CD-I - Información; DIM. CD-C - Comunicación; DIM. CD-CC - Creación de contenido. El instrumento fue aplicado a 2157 docentes procedentes de todo el territorio español, pertenecientes a diferentes etapas educativas: Educación Infantil, Primaria, Secundaria, Formación Profesional y Enseñanza de Personas Adultas. Los análisis de fiabilidad fueron satisfactorios. Con relación a la validez, los resultados encontraron un buen ajuste del modelo, tanto en la validez interna como en la invarianza factorial por género y tipo de centro, con una versión final del instrumento de 13 ítems. Estos resultados muestran que el instrumento que se presenta es válido y fiable para medir la competencia digital del docente sobre el uso que hacen de YouTube como recurso didáctico.The purpose of this study was the creation of an instrument on the digital competence of the teacher in the use of YouTube as a learning tool. Specifically, the following specific objectives were outlined: content validity, comprehension validity, construct validity (exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis), convergent and discriminant validity, invariance by gender (male-female) and type of center (urban-rural), and determine the internal consistency through different reliability coefficients. The instrument had an initial version of 30 items classified into three factors: DIM. DC-I - Information; DIM. DC-C - Communication; DIM. DC-CC - Creation of content. The instrument was applied to 2157 teachers from all over the Spanish territory, belonging to different educational stages: Early Childhood, Primary and Secondary Education, Vocational Training and Adult Education. The reliability analyzes were satisfactory. Regarding validity, the results found a good adjustment of the model, both in internal validity and in factorial invariance by gender and type of center, with a final version of the instrument of 13 items. These results show that the instrument presented is valid and reliable to measure the digital competence of the teacher regarding the use they make of YouTube as a didactic resource

Digital competencies of technical-professional students: creation of a causal model from a PLS-SEM approach

Actualmente, estamos en una situación de tránsito en la manera de impartir docencia, provocado por el CoVId-19. En muy poco tiempo, los estudiantes se han vistos forzados a introducir en su proceso de enseñanzaaprendizaje el uso de recursos digitales que les permita seguir aprendiendo. frente a esta situación, se requiere una adecuada competencia digital, entendida no como una habilidad única, sino como un conjunto de habilidades que facilitan el uso de tecnología educativa, el trabajo en equipo, el pensamiento crítico, la creatividad y la comunicación. El objetivo de este trabajo es proponer un modelo estructural causal de las dimensiones que configuran la competencia digital en estudiantes técnico-profesionales. El estudio se hizo con una muestra no probabilística constituida por 17301 estudiantes procedentes de la AIEP de la Universidad Andrés bello. La validez de este instrumento se ha llevado a cabo a partir de la aplicación del método de mínimos cuadrados parciales (PLS) de los modelos de ecuaciones estructurales. El principal resultado fue que el modelo explicaba un 32.90% de la varianza verdadera de la competencia digital del estudiantado. Además, se ha permitido verificar la fiabilidad, validez convergente y discriminante de las relaciones causales establecidas, determinando un modelo con una bondad de ajuste aceptableCurrently, we are in a situation of transition in the way of teaching, caused by CoVId-19. In a very short time, students have been forced to introduce in their teaching-learning process the use of digital resources that allow them to continue learning. faced with this situation, an adequate digital competence is required, understood not as a single skill, but as a set of skills that facilitate the use of educational technology, teamwork, critical thinking, creativity and communication. The objective of this work is to propose a causal structural model of the dimensions that configure digital competence in technical-professional students. The study was carried out with a non-probabilistic sample of 17301 students from AIEP of the Andrés bello University in Chile. The validity of this instrument was carried out by applying the partial least squares (PLS) method of structural equation modeling. The main result was that the model explained 32.90% of the true variance of the students' digital competence. In addition, the reliability, convergent and discriminant validity of the established causal relationships were verified, determining a model with an acceptable goodness of fi

La colaboración familia-escuela en tiempos de pandemia

Desde la llegada del COVID-19, se han producido transformaciones en los distintos sectores de la sociedad. En el ámbito educativo provocó cambios para toda la comunidad educativa, pues conllevaba pasar del escenario presencial al virtual dando respuesta a las necesidades del alumnado y sus familias. En esta línea este trabajo persigue evidenciar el establecimiento de las relaciones familias-escuela mediadas por las TIC durante la pandemia en el Colegio San Alberto Magno. Los resultados evidencian que los agentes que han impulsado dichas relaciones han sido el equipo directivo, el personal docente, los servicios de orientación y los especialistas. Estos han mantenido una comunicación estrecha con las familias a través de distintos medios (correo electrónico, WhatsApp, Plataforma, Meet, Zoom, Skype, Classroom, Adobe Connect, Teams, entre otros), procurando informar y orientar desde la perspectiva sanitaria, educativa, pedagógica y psicológica. A pesar de apenas contar con formación tecnológica, han sabido adaptarse rápidamente al nuevo escenario, gracias al compromiso e implicación de todos y todas. Como conclusión, este trabajo confirma que cuando se tienen bien asentadas las bases de la relación familia-escuela, las tecnologías potencian dicha relación, pudiendo generar espacios virtuales acogedores, que respondan a las necesidades de toda la comunidad educativa