Telematic Education at the University: A Study in Future Teachers

ABSTRACT

The emergence of Information and Communication Technologies in the educational area has allowed the expansion of learning through telematic means. In addition, the Covid-19 pandemic, and the consequent closure of school institutions, led to the massive application of fully online or combined training (face-to-face and with telematics support). The objective of this research was to know the evaluations of university students who intend to be teachers, about the training they are receiving by telematic means. To do this, an online questionnaire was designed, validated and applied to 523 students from two universities from Spain and one from Portugal. Descriptive and multivariate analyzes were performed, obtaining statistically significant differences. The results show that telematic education is not evaluated in a particularly positive way by the students, highlighting that they miss socializing with their classmates, although they recognize that its implementation also offers advantages such as greater flexibility and a reduction in economic expenses. Finally, the need to transform teaching methodologies for an efficient transition from face-to-face to telematic learning is discussed, and concludes with guidelines to improve the quality and effectiveness of online and combined training plans for higher education students.