PRACTICAL SKILLS IN DISTANCE STUDIES OF THE COMMUNICATION DEGREE. CASE OF THE UNIVERSIDAD TÉCNICA PARTICULAR DE LOJA

Higher distance education gains acceptance, the academic offers of this type of studies cover several fields thanks to the pedagogical mediation that is carried out through information technologies. The synchronic relationship between teachers and students plus open educational resources emulate to a great extent the conditions of the classroom and even allow simulation tools in real time. However, one of the most discussed elements are the practice spaces because it would seem that they are not designed to form the skills that professionals require in the future. The purpose of the research is to evaluate pre-professional practices in the career of social communication, in the distance mode, of the Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja, in the Republic of Ecuador, to determine strengths and weaknesses in the training of competencies. The research hypothesis is: The virtual tools and the detailed planning of pre-professional practices in coordination with media counterparts allow to form the practical competences of the students of the career of social communication. The work methodology is qualitative and is carried out through the analysis of contents of articles published by social communication students, registered at https://saladeredaccion.utpl.edu.ec/, and compared with articles published in the media. traditional professionals, based on the classic structure of journalistic genres; In addition, semistructured interviews are proposed to experts and participants in distance education: teachers, students, qualified professionals and employers. There are elements of the methodology of distance education, tools of virtual environments and pre-professional practices that should be encouraged in the training of skills in this type of studies to maintain the same quality standards of face-to-face education.