INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN FOR A BLENDED COURSE FOR TEACHING STAFF TRAINING IN HIGHER EDUCATION IN ECUADOR

The main objective of this study is to analyze the incidence of digital education in higher education staff in Ecuador. Through a brief review of the literature based on TPACK model, the instructional principles of effective teaching, and the development of digital and informational teaching skills, this article proposes an instructional design of a blended learning course for university staff. Previous research indicates that instructional design of training courses in ICT for education does not consider the digital competence and there is few ICT integration in the university classroom. The study also proposes a new instructional design based on digital education and development of digital and informational skills for teaching staff. The blended-course proposes four themes. The first theme contemplates the development of digital and informational competences of university staff. Participants will know what digital education is, the digital and informational skills to develop and keys for ICT integration in the classroom. The second theme reviews instructional principles and pedagogical strategies and techniques of digital activities and resources in a learning platform. The third theme proposes the development of communication strategies for education using web 2.0 and social networks. It will address the use of some social networks and web 2.0 apps in order to generate communication strategies for education. The last theme adds some informational strategies for knowledge improvement and research. Participants will know new e-tools for educational research: use of academic web search, the access to scientific databases, the use of bibliographic reference management, plagiarism detection program.