Abstract:

Educational innovation demands the understanding of learning nature and the processes as well as means that promote it. It must be clear that the challenge does not have anything to do with the use or not of technology. The use of technology itself does not guarantee that its particular benefits will be applied to improve learning. Many traditional learning environments use very little technology or do not use it for educational purposes though their results are excellent. Thus, the principle in choosing or develop of a specific technology is the learning ability of the students.
Particularly, among the results achieved through this research, at Universidad Abierta y a Distancia de Mexico, it is the design of an educational model (Learning Cluster), which takes advantage of the training opportunities that the ICTs offer creating new academic roles along with many original and enriching teaching practices. These teaching practices focused reinforcing self-independent learning. On the other hand, there is the cognitive profile of over 34,000 people who are interested on learning through a distance mode. The participants aged 12 and 78 are distributed along the whole country. Both results show the importance of what is taught, how it is taught and how knowledge is communicated.
However, the specific features that define the success of a distance approach have not been identified or measured based on two identifiers: improvement of learning and retention. In this sense, it is not enough to just state that students must be independent or have self-motivation. It is necessary to perform an more detailed analysis that will help determine with meticulousness the factors that improve the quality of learning and to avoid early dropouts in higher education studies. Of course it is acknowledged that this problem affects all learning approaches but it is more common in distance learning programs.
Accordingly the purpose of this research was to consider attitude towards studying, approaches to studying, general academic self-efficiency, self-regulation towards academic learning at university, efficiency in group projects participation, life goals, subjective happiness, and motivational management among 412 on line undergraduates through their entire professional studies who had a high level of academic performance.

Keywords:

academic success, online education, virtual learning, higher education.