Abstract:

UNESCO views communication and collaboration as key skills for productive participation in the society of the twenty-first century, as well as social and intercultural skills and learning to live together, as important demands of today's society to which higher education institutions must respond. Moreover, the development of these important skills is only possible through the continuous implementation of didactics that promote collaboration, learning with others and peer-to-peer communication. At the international level, there are many studies on collaborative learning and its effects, especially at the basic and secondary education levels, which give rise to some meta-analyses that constitute an important reference, but the same depth is not seen in the forms of implementation of collaborative learning in higher education, or its configuration with the incorporation of ICTs.

This paper describes the results obtained in a research that investigates the collaborative learning practices with ICT incorporation carried out by 42 professors in service of a Colombian public university and compares them with the results obtained in a bibliographic review of articles that describe experiences of collaborative learning and ICT in higher education.

The research was carried out with a descriptive qualitative approach, guided by an ethnographic design. Semi-structured interviews with teachers, focus groups with students and characterization of virtual spaces were used as instruments for collecting information. A content analysis of the interviews and focus groups was carried out, based on the initial categories of: technologies used, perception of the advantages and disadvantages of collaborative learning strategies and the use of ICT. The information was triangulated with the characterization of the virtual learning spaces and with the results of bibliographic review.

The results show coherence between the ICT tools used in the training practices of the university analysed and the results of bibliographic review. The use of learning management systems, google tools and specialised software is highlighted. LMS are not used to encourage or support collaboration, but instead as a repository for documents and for the delivery of teamwork. Among the advantages of collaborative learning perceived by teachers and students are: the promotion of debate and discussion, with the consequent improvement of argumentative skills, the promotion of leadership, the relevance of social interaction and communication, the creation of a classroom environment that facilitates the integration of practice with theory. As part of the perception of disadvantages of collaborative learning are the difficulty of coordination among students, the lack of commitment that leads to personal friction, the requirement of large amounts of teaching time to make the assessment of collaborative learning.

The research findings allowed the generation of guidelines for the design of collaborative learning activities and the relevant use of technologies in higher education.

Keywords:

Collaborative learning, technology, higher education, educational technology, teaching practices.