Interacciones comunicativas y aprendizaje colaborativo en entornos virtuales de la Universidad de Medellín

Abstract

Social distancing measures, applied to mitigate the expansion of the COVID-19 pandemic, forced the University of Medellín to abruptly close its doors and transfer all of its processes to virtual environments, which required a transformation of the communicative and educational practices of the university community. This resulting research project was conducted following a qualitative paradigm, with a hermeneutic approach. The objective was to understand how communicative interactions were promoted through collaborative learning in virtual environments during the pandemic, as part of the “University at Home” strategy, which in turn was based on the model of technology-mediated teaching. Information was collected through the review of 65 articles published between 2018 and 2021, the content analysis of 42 virtual environments hosted on the UVirtual Academic platform in the semester 2021-1, and semi-structured interviews with 24 professors from the University. As a result of this study, several trends were identified. First, feedback between teaching and learning subjects emerged as a transversal dimension to the cognitive, social, and affective dimensions of communicative interactions. Second, the trend towards the integration of instant messaging mobile applications in educational settings was enhanced. Third, collaborative learning didactic strategies that promote communication in virtual environments were highlighted, among which, tutoring, classroom projects and co-assessment activities were the most used. Finally, it was found that the motivation of students and professors influences communicative interactions. Thus, it was concluded that applying collaborative learning strategies enhances motivation towards interaction with others, increases social presence in virtual learning environments and favors the creation of academic, social, and emotional support networks among members of the educational community.