Record of undergraduates’ activities in virtual learning environments

Virtual learning environments (VLEs) have witnessed a high evolution, namely regarding their potentialities, the tools and the activities they provide. VLEs enable us to access large quantities of data resulting from both students and teachers’ activities developed in those environments. Monitoring undergraduates’ activities in VLEs is important as it allows us to showcase, in a structured way, a number of indicators which may be taken into account to understand the learning process more deeply and to propose improvements in the teaching and learning strategies as well as in the institution’s virtual environment. Although VLEs provide several data sectorial statistics, they do not provide knowledge regarding the institution’s evolution. Therefore, we consider the analysis of the activity logs in VLEs over a period of five years to be paramount. This paper focuses on the analysis of the activities developed by students in a virtual learning environment, from a sample of undergraduate students, approximately 7000 per year, over a period of five academic years, namely from 2009/2010 to 2013/2014. The main aims of this research work are to assess the evolution of activity logs in the virtual learning environment of a Portuguese public higher education institution, in order to fill possible gaps and to hold out the prospect of new forms of use of the environment. The results obtained from the data analysis show that overall, the number of accesses to the virtual learning environment increased over the five years under study. The most used tools were Resources, Messages and Assignments. The most frequent activities developed with these tools were respectively consulting information, sending messages and submitting assignments. The frequency of accesses to the virtual learning environment was characterized according to the number of accesses in the activity log. The data distribution was divided into five frequency categories named very low, low, moderate, high and very high, determined by the percentiles 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100, respectively. The study of activity logs of virtual learning environments is important not only because they provide real knowledge of the use that undergraduates make of these environments, but also because of the possibilities they create regarding the identification of a need for new pedagogical approaches or a reinforcement of previously consolidated approaches.

Competência Digital: conhecer para estimular o ensino e a aprendizagem

A evolução da sociedade demanda que todos os cidadãos possuam conhecimentos, competências e aptidões pertinentes para uma participação plena e ativa na era digital. As competências digitais são um requisito indispensável a todos os cidadãos e fazem parte das competências essenciais da aprendizagem ao longo da vida. Assim, pretende-se apresentar uma perspetiva da estratégia política em matéria de competência digital, evidenciar o papel da educação na promoção da literacia digital e estimular o desenvolvimento profissional, nos professores, para ajudar a promover a competência digital nos alunos e o desenvolvimento das competências-chave essenciais no século XXI.

Intergenerational learning with ICT: a case study

In a context of rapid demographic and technological changes, digital skills are essential in order for citizens to actively participate in society. However, digital literacy for all citizens, especially for the older population, is not yet a reality. It is increasingly crucial for active ageing, lifelong learning, and life-wide learning that the elderly learn digital skills. Intergenerational learning can play a key role in achieving a wide range of goals. This paper focuses on the contribution of intergenerational learning to digital and social inclusion. We promoted ICT intergenerational workshops and chose the case study methodolog y to study three distinct cases of intergenerational learning with ICT. The results show that intergenerational learning with ICT contributes to the digital literacy of adults and seniors and fosters lifelong learning, active ageing, and understanding and solidarity among generations. We reveal the benefits of the intergenerational learning process for all participants and suggest some ways to achieve intergenerational learning through ICT in order to build more socially and digitally cohesive societies.