THE USE OF

COMMUNICATION

TECHNOLOGIES TO

SUPPORT TEACHING AND

LEARNING PRACTICES IN

PORTUGUESE HIGHER

EDUCATION

Fernando Ramos1, Marta Pinto1, Dalila Coelho1, Rui Raposo1,

Pedro Almeida1, Luís Pedro1, João Batista1

1CETAC.MEDIA, University of Aveiro (Portugal) {fernando.ramos, martapinto, dalila.coelho, raposo, almeida, lpedro,

joao.batista}@ua.pt

MULTIDIMENSIONAL

USES OF COMMUNICATION

TECHNOLOGIES (CTs)

1- imagem sobre o uso das TIC no ensino superior

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2/18

http://www.flickr.com/photos/andreasmb/4866537197/

COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES BEING ADOPTED BY HEIs

1- imagem sobre o uso das TIC no ensino superior

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2/18

http://www.flickr.com/photos/polymerheart/5098184036/

ONLINE CT BEING USED TO SUPPORT T&L PRACTICES

Como decidem os estudantes

http://www.flickr.com/photos/idea-saras/8067903029/sizes/l/

BUT: HOW ARE HEIs DOING THEIR CT DECISIONS?

ARE STUDENTS AND TEACHERS AWARE OF CT USES IN HEIs?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/idea-saras/8067903029/sizes/l/

OUR GOALSTHE

GOALS

1characterize the

adoption and use

of ICT in HEIs of the

Portuguese public

system

2develop and make

available a web

based information

visualization tool

that allows HEIs to

share and update

the way they use CT

3identify practices

that can be useful to

decision-makers at a

policy, administrative

and pedagogical

level

HEIs survey: Institutional perspective on the use of CT (decision-makers and CT managers)

TRACER: tool conceptualization and prototyping

HEIs survey: the teachers’ perspective of the use of CT

TRACER: tool deployment

Dissemination of good practices

MAIN PHASES

http://www.flickr.com/photos/yesiamisme/3628570395/sizes/l/in/photostream/

HEIs, TEACHERS AND EXPERTS, ...

25 HEIs3 DATA COLLECTION PHASES

57 INTERVIEWS2 FOCUS GROUPS

19 BETA TESTERS

26 EXPERTS

RESULTS | INSTITUTIONAL PERSPECTIVE

9 completed the survey

The online institutional presence is predominantly represented by

institutional portals and by social networks

The e-mail and the LMS are the CTs more often used

All institutions using LMS/VLE systems (e.g. moodle)

33% provide Open Educational Resources

77% of the institutions don’t have educational resources for mobile

learning

77% provide training in CT for their teachers

But… only 33% have a formal strategy or policy for the use of CT

RESULTS | TEACHERS’ PERSPECTIVE

185 valid answers out of 19 HEIs

CTs most commonly known by teachers are: e-mail (98%), digital

repositories (94%) and LMS/VLE (93,5%)

60% use CT on a daily basis

Reasons for using CT are motivating students for learning

(77,8%) and innovating teaching practices (74,6%).

Resources used: images and visuals (98%) and documents (95%)

Resources not used: interactive games (75%), discussion

environments (50%) and simulations (45%)

Evaluation with a lower integration of CT ~ half of the teachers

don’t use CT for this purposes

BUT…WITH SO MUCH DATA TO GATHER, SHARE AND ANALYZE

WHAT TO DO?

25 HEI3 DATA COLLECTION PHASES

57 INTERVIEWS2 FOCUS GROUPS

19 BETA TESTERS

26 EXPERTS

1 PORTAL1 INFORMATION VISUALIZATION TOOL

BUT…MUCH MORE DATA TO ANALYSE

WHAT TO DO?

BACK OFFICE administrators and respondents

fill surveys

manage surveys

administrative tasks

FRONT OFFICE students, teachers, HEIs, …

info areas

U-TRACER

visualization tool

MULTIPLE FILTERS AND DATA ANALYSIS COMBINATIONS

DIFFERENT VISUALIZATION OPTIONS

CONCLUSIONS

An in depth view of how CT is being used (from institutional and

teachers’ perspective) can be a decisive advantage to a higher

education institution

The TRACER project will continue to support the collection,

processing and deployment of info about CT use in Portuguese

public HEIs

Preliminary results and the experts’ opinions provide a very

positive feedback towards the relevance of the U-TRACER tool

There is the need for improving the awareness of the HEI

leadership on the role of CT to the enhancement of the teaching

and learning conditions offered to students and teaching staff

QUESTIONS?

HTTP://CMS.UA.PT/TRACER/

Fernando Ramos1, Marta Pinto1, Dalila Coelho1, Rui

Raposo1, Pedro Almeida1, Luís Pedro1, João Batista1

1CETAC.MEDIA, University of Aveiro (Portugal) {fernando.ramos, martapinto, dalila.coelho, raposo, almeida,

lpedro, joao.batista}@ua.pt