Abstract:

Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent years (2020-2023), online educational platforms or Learning Management Systems (LMS) became pivotal for both educators and students to sustain academic continuity. The UNAM (National Autonomous University of Mexico) introduced TAV ("Tu Aula Virtual"), a virtual environment facilitating the creation and the interaction of digital course materials where teachers build environments by themselves, with technical and academic support. Additionally, the DGTIC (Dirección General de Cómputo y de Tecnologías de Información y Comunicación / General Directorate of Computing and Information and Communication Technologies) powered a project to establish specific classrooms with predefined content for high school teachers.

All the elements of this Moodle environment and their interactions are recorded in a big and complex relational database that contains potential information about the activity usage of the resources in TAV.

Nowadays, in a non-pandemic status, it’s important to analyze how effective the Moodle strategy was for the university in order to know how to improve their services in a world where the virtual resources are still indispensable. This study examines through an exploratory data analysis the efficacy usage of one of the biggest UNAM Moodle sites, recognizing the importance of virtual resources in a post-pandemic era.

Data from TAV relational database provide insights about the utilization and course engagements. Notably, while 70% of high school classrooms created in the pandemic years were specific classrooms, a significant portion (56%) were underused or had never been used.

Additionally, analysis of 2023 activity reveals a small 9% classroom usage rate across from the whole site classrooms. Understanding this evolution is vital for university decision-makers to assess the strategies regarding teacher training and effective use of Moodle-based virtual classrooms.

Keywords:

Moodle, UNAM, Classroom, TAV, usage, online education, hybrid education, digital, data analysis.