TRACER's presentation at INTED 2014, entitled "The use of communication technologies to support teaching and learning practices in portuguese higher education"

1. THE USE OF
COMMUNICATION
TECHNOLOGIES TO
SUPPORT TEACHING AND
LEARNING PRACTICES IN
PORTUGUESE HIGHER
EDUCATION
Fernando Ramos1, Marta Pinto1, Dalila Coelho1, Rui Raposo1,
Pedro Almeida1, Luís Pedro1, João Batista1
1CETAC.MEDIA, University of Aveiro (Portugal)
{fernando.ramos, martapinto, dalila.coelho, raposo, almeida, lpedro,
joao.batista}@ua.pt

2. MULTIDIMENSIONAL
USES OF COMMUNICATION
TECHNOLOGIES (CTs)

3. 1- imagem sobre o uso das TIC no ensino superior
…..
2/18
http://www.flickr.com/photos/andreasmb/4866537197/
COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES
BEING ADOPTED BY HEIs

4. 1- imagem sobre o uso das TIC no ensino superior
…..
2/18
http://www.flickr.com/photos/polymerheart/5098184036/
ONLINE CT BEING USED TO
SUPPORT T&L PRACTICES

5. Como decidem os estudantes
http://www.flickr.com/photos/idea-saras/8067903029/sizes/l/
BUT: HOW ARE HEIs DOING
THEIR CT DECISIONS?

6. ARE STUDENTS AND TEACHERS
AWARE OF CT USES IN HEIs?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/idea-saras/8067903029/sizes/l/

7. OUR GOALSTHE
GOALS
1
characterize the
adoption and use
of ICT in HEIs of the
Portuguese public
system
2
develop and make
available a web
based information
visualization tool
that allows HEIs to
share and update
the way they use CT
3
identify practices
that can be useful to
decision-makers at a
policy, administrative
and pedagogical
level

8. HEIs survey: Institutional perspective on the use of CT (decision-makers and CT managers)
TRACER: tool conceptualization and prototyping
HEIs survey: the teachers’ perspective of the use of CT
TRACER: tool deployment
Dissemination of good practices
MAIN PHASES

9. http://www.flickr.com/photos/yesiamisme/3628570395/sizes/l/in/photostream/
HEIs, TEACHERS AND
EXPERTS, ...

10. 25 HEIs
3 DATA COLLECTION PHASES
57 INTERVIEWS
2 FOCUS GROUPS
19 BETA TESTERS
26 EXPERTS

11. RESULTS | INSTITUTIONAL PERSPECTIVE
9 completed the survey
 The online institutional presence is predominantly represented by
institutional portals and by social networks
 The e-mail and the LMS are the CTs more often used
 All institutions using LMS/VLE systems (e.g. moodle)
 33% provide Open Educational Resources
 77% of the institutions don’t have educational resources for mobile
learning
 77% provide training in CT for their teachers
 But… only 33% have a formal strategy or policy for the use of CT

12. RESULTS | TEACHERS’ PERSPECTIVE
185 valid answers out of 19 HEIs
 CTs most commonly known by teachers are: e-mail (98%), digital
repositories (94%) and LMS/VLE (93,5%)
 60% use CT on a daily basis
 Reasons for using CT are motivating students for learning
(77,8%) and innovating teaching practices (74,6%).
 Resources used: images and visuals (98%) and documents (95%)
 Resources not used: interactive games (75%), discussion
environments (50%) and simulations (45%)
 Evaluation with a lower integration of CT ~ half of the teachers
don’t use CT for this purposes

13. BUT…
WITH SO MUCH DATA TO GATHER, SHARE AND ANALYZE
WHAT TO DO?

14. 25 HEI
3 DATA COLLECTION PHASES
57 INTERVIEWS
2 FOCUS GROUPS
19 BETA TESTERS
26 EXPERTS
1 PORTAL
1 INFORMATION VISUALIZATION TOOL

15. BUT…
MUCH MORE DATA TO ANALYSE
WHAT TO DO?

16. BACK OFFICE
administrators and respondents
fill surveys
manage surveys
administrative tasks

17. FRONT OFFICE
students, teachers, HEIs, …
info areas
U-TRACER
visualization tool

18. MULTIPLE FILTERS AND DATA ANALYSIS COMBINATIONS
DIFFERENT VISUALIZATION OPTIONS

19. CONCLUSIONS
 An in depth view of how CT is being used (from institutional and
teachers’ perspective) can be a decisive advantage to a higher
education institution
 The TRACER project will continue to support the collection,
processing and deployment of info about CT use in Portuguese
public HEIs
 Preliminary results and the experts’ opinions provide a very
positive feedback towards the relevance of the U-TRACER tool
 There is the need for improving the awareness of the HEI
leadership on the role of CT to the enhancement of the teaching
and learning conditions offered to students and teaching staff

20. QUESTIONS?
HTTP://CMS.UA.PT/TRACER/
Fernando Ramos1, Marta Pinto1, Dalila Coelho1, Rui
Raposo1, Pedro Almeida1, Luís Pedro1, João Batista1
1CETAC.MEDIA, University of Aveiro (Portugal)
{fernando.ramos, martapinto, dalila.coelho, raposo, almeida,
lpedro, joao.batista}@ua.pt