DISTANCE LEARNING PLATFORMS FOR MAKING SUBJECTS VIRTUAL

This communication presents the partial results of the Regional Autonomous Government of Andalusia’s Project of Excellence (HUM- 02013) – currently still in progress – “Distance Learning Platforms for Making Subjects Virtual”. This project was carried out at four universities in the region (Cádiz, Huelva, Sevilla and Córdoba).

The aim of this investigation is to apply a descriptive analysis to the different distance learning platforms used at various universities in Andalusia in order to determine the possibilities of implementing these teacher-student resources within the different modalities of virtual teaching: support for the teaching of students whose attendance is full-time, part-time or as distance learners, in order to improve processes and the quality of education in the new European space of higher education.

The basic justification for this study is the evident lack of relevant research in this area. So far, as the literature in this field testifies, the e-learning platforms in use, or which are being set up at universities, are mostly selected without the necessary scientific criteria to justify their choice, due to the absence of any reliable research.
The hypothetical starting point is that, only by describing analytically and rigorously the various contributions and elements that constitute e-learning platforms as new virtual teaching-learning spaces, will it be possible to extract reference indicators and proposals of quality to take full educational advantage of these new working environments.
In this communication we will try to respond to one of the general objectives of this project:

To describe scientifically the current state of the use of e-learning platforms at four universities in Andalusia, Huelva, Sevilla, Cádiz and Córdoba, in order to analyse the overall viability and incidence of these virtual teaching-learning spaces in terms of the requirements of the new European space of higher education.
This in turn consists of various specific objectives, which are based on the analysis and the comparison of the following aspects:
Typology of platforms used at institutional level at the four universities.
Didactic uses of the platform.
Didactic potential of the LMS, the benefits of each platform and its contribution to the improvement of the teaching-learning processes.

Weaknesses, deficiencies and limitations in each platform, linked to deficiencies at didactic-pedagogical, formative, technical and organizational/infrastructure levels.
Proposals for improvements in these dimensions: formative and didactic-pedagogical, technical, organizational and infrastructure.