Influence of Knowledge Area on the Use of Digital Tools during the COVID-19 Pandemic among Latin American Professors

Abstract

In this paper, quantitative, descriptive, and correlational research is carried out on the impact that the process of digitalization of academic activities in higher education has had on the habits of use of information and communication technologies (ICT) among professors and the influence of the area of knowledge on this impact. For this purpose, responses from 716 professors from different Latin American universities to a survey designed by the authors were statistically analyzed. Following the UNESCO guide on the use of ICT in higher education, the survey distinguishes the following teaching activities to measure the use of ICT: lessons, tutorials, sharing materials, and evaluation. The results show that the use of ICT has increased in all teaching activities, but unevenly, being particularly intense in those in which the use of ICT was less frequent during the pandemic—specifically, tutorials and evaluation, whose frequency of use has increased by around 50%. As a result of this uneven increase, the use of ICTs in different teaching activities has become more homogeneous after the pandemic. This increase was significantly higher among engineering and social sciences professors than in other areas of knowledge, as well as in evaluation and tutorial tools than in other activities. In addition, the ICT tools most used during the pandemic were those with which the professors or students were most familiar before the pandemic. It is recommended that universities increase the specific training of professors in the pedagogical use of ICT and that they should address the specificities of each area of knowledge.

Higher Education in the Pacific Alliance: Descriptive and Exploratory Analysis of the Didactic Potential of Virtual Reality

“…The self-concept expressed by PA professors about their digital skills was low ( 2). These results are in line with the self-concepts of digital competence of profess the entire Latin American and Caribbean region [17,18,25,26], which shows that the no significant differences between the perceptions of digital competence of profess the PA countries with respect to professors in the countries of the region. The resul tained here show that professors' ratings of their digital skills are much more disp than the VR ratings (with a coefficient of variation of 41.26%, compared to variatio no more than 30% in the VR ratings).…”

“…Likewise, the didactic usefulness of VR in higher education refers to its employability as a didactic resource, which not only involves technical knowledge of VR on the part of the professor, but also specific training in techno-pedagogical skills, availability of adequate spaces and technologies in universities, and access to these technologies by the entire educational community [17,18]. In this sense, the literature identifies deficient training in digital and techno-pedagogical competencies as one of the main limitations to the use of VR in lectures [19].…”

“…Regarding the digital skills of Latin American professors, the literature reveals that self-concept in this regard is low [25,26], regardless of the area of knowledge [17,18]. These low ratings are very uniform among faculty, especially in technical areas [18], although with a greater dispersion in areas such as health sciences [27].…”

Digital Pandemic Stress in Higher Education in Venezuela

“…These facts demonstrate that the gender gap in digital stress due to the pandemic and the digital competence of professors in different areas of knowledge are different in Venezuela and in countries with low GIIs: Bolivia, Honduras, and Guatemala. The specialized literature had already proved the existence of significant differences by professors’ area of knowledge in terms of professors’ digital competence [ 12 , 72 , 73 ], the digital stress derived from the pandemic [ 12 ], the impact of the pandemic on the frequency of use of digital technologies by professors [ 74 ], and the assessment of the use of digital tools in the classroom and the capacity of the teaching staff to adapt to them while maintaining a didactic perspective focused on student learning [ 75 , 76 , 77 ]. However, the description of the reasons that explain this difference in behavior exceeds the purposes of this paper, and they constitute an interesting line of future research.…”

“…Regarding the integration of digital tools into the teaching processes in higher education and the consequent stress derived from it, studies from the literature have found that the area of a professor’s expert knowledge is a strongly explanatory variable. In this sense, the area of knowledge partially explains the levels of digital skills manifested by the professors [ 72 , 73 ], as well as the patterns of digital technology usage on their part [ 74 ]; it is more frequently used among professors of technical areas, who present higher levels of digital competence. However, a frequently indicated source of digital stress comes from the deficiency in teachers’ techno-pedagogical skills, for which their area of knowledge is not an explanatory variable [ 75 , 76 , 77 ].…”