Lifelong Learning as a Strategy for Digital Literacy in University Teachers

Abstract

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic generated the transition from a face-to-face teaching modality to a virtual teaching modality. For continuity deliverance to the university educational system's activities, it was crucial to generate permanent training courses to manage virtual classrooms, virtual educational resources, and video conferencing platforms to establish contact with students. This research aims to corroborate whether permanent training constitutes a meaningful and valuable digital literacy strategy for university teachers. Following the paradigm of a qualitative research design, a survey application before and after starting the permanent training courses explicitly selected for the teachers from Escuela Superior Politécnica de Chimborazo of the Public Health faculty. As a result, there is a significant difference between the digital skills that teachers initially possess and those developed after participating in permanent training courses. The data was corroboree by obtaining a p-value of 0.007. Lifelong learning acquires a leading role when digital literacy and digital skills development are necessary for an emerging situation.