Abstract:

The University of Talca-Chile is a public institution that congregates nearly 12 thousands undergraduate students distributed in 5 campuses around the country. The university community presented its strategic plan for 2030 at the beginning of this decade including a strong emphasis in the digital transformation of the institution. However, the effects of the pandemic accelerated the processes of digital transformation and the valuation of technology increased since it was as an effective and efficient mediator of teaching and learning.
Virtuality went from being a voluntary initiative of a number of proactive teachers to a hard need, due to the well known global circumstances and lead to an area of opportunities for innovation development with the aim of improving the quality and coverage of education. It is in this last area where the digitization of the educational process has made possible to democratize learning, making it able to reach everywhere connectivity is present and at suitable times for learners.
In this context, the Virtual Campus unit which reports to the Vice Rector's Office for Innovation, is in charge of supporting the implementation and standardization of the virtual digital educational offering, to respond to the needs and challenges of digitalized alternative educational formats. That unit congregates the administration and technical support for the main LMS of the university (Educandus) and has the responsibility of maintaining a permanent service for educators.
The instructional designing model is based on methodologies and techniques that allow the teaching experience in higher education to have a correlation with the virtual format (e-learning), adjusting to an educational model with a competency approach, consistent with learning outcomes and skill development that are defined in the learning trajectories that contribute to a professional profile, described in cognitive, procedural and attitudinal dimensions.
Information is provided on the team structure of the unit, their functions and the professional profiles that make it up and how the team's work dynamics are established, how it coordinates with the other units in charge of teaching and the teachers themselves, to support them and strengthen their didactic proposals in a virtualized environment.
Thus, this work aims to share good practices in the implementation of a virtual campus and its projections in a framework of institutional digital transformation. The methodology is based on descriptive and qualitative semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders who are involved in the virtual campus implementation, including administrators, faculty members, and students. The interviews explore their perspectives, experiences, and challenges found during the implementation process. Secondly, a quantitative survey to a sample of faculties is applied to gather their perceptions and satisfaction levels regarding the support from virtual campus, and the results in their students learning outcomes.
Furthermore, data from existing documentation, such as reports, guidelines, and policies related to the virtual campus implementation, are analyzed to provide a comprehensive understanding of the strategies and practices employed. Finally, the collected data is analyzed, allowing for the identification of common themes, patterns, and possible trends for the successful implementation of virtual campuses in higher education.

Keywords:

e-learning, virtuality, instructional-design, digital-transformation.