Abstract:

The Training and Formation Institute is the Institution of the University of the Republic (UdelaR) in Uruguay that is responsible for the training system for technical, administrative, and service staff (non-teaching staff) as part of the personnel administration policies adopted by the institution.

For several years the training courses themselves have been developed in a semi-face-to-face format because the adult population often presents multiple jobs, parallel university studies, reconciliation with family responsibilities, and everything related to university decentralization in the country. In particular, in a study carried out at the Institute in 2019, course participants mentioned that "The platform allows me to reconcile training and work" by 80.3%.
In this context of health emergency due to the COVID 19 pandemic, there have been changes in the modalities of the courses offered at the institution, passing these training to a modality completely virtual. This fact makes necessary the application of innovative resources and the use of active methodologies within the virtual environment that allows students to promote, acquire, and consolidate the necessary transversal competences for their integral training.

Therefore, a great interest has arisen in the use of web videoconferencing software that allows us to continue the training in non-teaching staff, as well as new initiatives that provide tools to work in this context. From there, it could be shown that this modality could also be contributing to the access to training of those people who find themselves in unequal opportunities, particularly concerning the gender perspective and territoriality. The gender studies have addressed the issue of reconciling family life and work as an axis of inequality, which influences both the educational and employment paths of women, a fact that also occurs within the employees of the UdelaR. Moreover, the possibility of providing courses in the interior of the country is often limited by the availability of teachers and employees to move to Montevideo or other UdelaR regions.

The general objective of this research is to study whether the use of web videoconferences and the use of new educational resources in certain courses show that non-teaching staff working in the interior of the country and women employees take greater advantage of this learning modality, increasing the percentage of participants in comparison with face-to-face or semi-face-to-face courses.

This work will present the results indicators discriminating by gender and employees working in the faculties of the interior of the country. Among them are the approval rate, the performance rate, and the dropout rate.

Results will also be shown concerning surveys of expectations and evaluation/assessment of the course. These tools seek to obtain information, in order to evaluate these modalities for improvement in future editions of courses.

Keywords:

Web videoconferences, adult education, education for work.