Diseño y desarrollo de un entorno virtual de apoyo a la investigación entre pares. La comunidad virtual de investigadores en formación MTE/DITE

Abstract

In doctoral studies, the dissertation writing process is generally carried out with the sole accompaniment of the supervisor and/or tutor. It is a solitary phase, in which one can experience a feeling of isolation, which is one of the main causes of attrition from the doctoral programme. Academic socialisation fosters the integration of doctoral students, thereby reducing the feeling of isolation and the attrition rate, especially in online studies. Therefore, virtual communities of practice offer opportunities for socialising and developing research and professional skills. The Master and the Doctorate in Educational Technology are offered in partnership by four Spanish universities: University of Lleida, Rovira i Virgili University, University of Murcia and the University of the Balearic Islands. Its students and professors are geographically distributed throughout Spain and Latin America, making it a dispersed community that does not share a common virtual space. Previous studies have highlighted the need for an environment to support the training of these researchers. Although several attempts have been made, for different reasons, they have not been successful. This doctoral thesis revisits the last initiative, and its objective is to create a virtual environment that contributes to research training and serves as a means of connection and interaction for the community of researchers of the Master's and Doctorate in Educational Technology. The generic Design-Based Research model (McKenney and Reeves, 2012) has been applied, which distinguishes three basic phases in a flexible and iterative structure: research/analysis; design/construction of prototypes; evaluation/reflection. In each phase, and associated with the development of the platform features, different iterative cycles of design, development and evaluation have been carried out, following the SAM1 instructional design model (Allen and Sites, 2012). Observation, questionnaire, interviews and focus group techniques have been used for evaluation. As a result, a collaborative environment has been created in which users can share different types of resources to support research (news, events, documents, theses, master's theses, videos, journals to publish in, applications for the research process, tools…). It also has search engines, internal filtering systems, and it allows content to be rated and commented on. The platform has a directory of members, and different communication tools, as well as the possibility of creating internal work and tutoring spaces. The implementation has followed a dynamization strategy that has contemplated, among other actions: the creation of a team of dynamizers, gradual incorporation of content and users, a system of notifications and newsletters, and informal online activities (coffee-talks), which have promoted a feeling of trust and a sense of community. In parallel and iteratively, the performance of the platform has been refined and new functionalities have been implemented. At the time of writing this report, the platform has 163 users with different levels of participation. A total of 246 resources have been generated, 74% of which have been members' contributions. Users have positively valued the different aspects of the platform, highlighting the possibilities for academic and social support. The results show that the aforementioned environment meets the necessary requirements to host the community of researchers in training of DITE and MITE, facilitating the development of collaborative and exchange processes, as well as supporting tutoring processes. It should be underlined that, although the results have been positive, in order to promote participation, the sense of community and the sustainability of this initiative, it is necessary a continuous work of dynamisation in which the active support of the teaching staff and the coordinators of the doctoral programme is essential.