VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS FOR LEARNING TO LEARN. THE REAL CASE OF THE EDUCATION FACULTY AT THE ALICANTE UNIVERSITY

University education is undergoing a transformation process with the aim of creating a common framework for better mobility and competitive knowledge-based society. Therefore, the incursion of the Spanish University in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), among other things, requires the proper development of general and specific competences, which should be linked necessarily to a learning decentralization enhanced by student's independent work. We talk about the development of learning to learn competition -metacognition-. Meaning, the ability to organize their own learning, which involves controlling effectively, time and information, either individually, as a group. This competition includes the ability to identify opportunities, solve and overcome problems, and build their knowledge from experiences and needs. Information Technologies and Communication provide different virtual tools that allow us to promote such decentralization. One of these instruments, which currently employ at the Alicante University, is the Virtual Campus. In this communication, we describe and analyze this virtual environment as a self-learning tool accessible to all University students, specifically Education Faculty students. This learning environment is proposed in order to help students to develop their classroom and non-contact activities. It is also the most important permanent communication channel between teachers and students. The Virtual Campus has been developed based on a methodology that is based on the integration of ICT online activities with classroom teaching that encourages independent learning and continued daily work of different subjects. In this study, our aim was to evaluate the student participation, as a user of the Virtual Campus, its degree of involvement and satisfaction, and their influence on their performance and self-learning. The instrument we used was a survey-made. The sample has been composed of 210 students from different specialties of the Faculty of Education at the Alicante University. The results obtained from surveys completed by students show that this tool has been evaluated positively by 95.57% of the students and allowed us to determine the usefulness of the Virtual Campus as it facilitates self-learning and autonomous work. It also allows the student to develop other skills, especially technological, cognitive and communication skills. Finally, the virtual environment, according to the students opinion, facilitates and improves communication between teachers and students, allowing them to be regularly informed about how this continuous assessment is developed and the results they are getting in this process.