Aula Invertida un Modelo como Alternativa de Docencia en Ingeniería

Information and communication technologies (ICT) are bursting into our lives, modifying forms of communication, which require breaking down space-time barriers, facilitating interaction and collaboration between people. In these times of change, companies and organizations need to be able to learn with a flexible and dynamic structure, where training fulfills two objectives; on the one hand the personal development of their workers and on the other the achievement of their goals in order to be competitive, which means a support to the training process, constituting tools that enhance and facilitate new ways of learning (Gil, 2010). ICTs can contribute to universal access to education, equality in instruction, a quality teaching-learning process, the professional development of teachers, as well as more efficient management, direction and administration of the educational system. In Ecuador, schools, high schools and universities are lagging behind in the training of young people, with limited use of ICTs (Pérez de Maza, 2007). In a study conducted in Cuenca, Ecuador, among teachers of Higher General Basic Education and Unified General Baccalaureate institutions, it is concluded that ICTs are mainly used to search for information and reinforce learning and the communicative potential and cooperative work among students, which these technologies provide, is not taken advantage of (Gonzáles, Trelles and Mora, 2017). The Salesian Polytechnic University of Ecuador (UPS)3, began in 2008 a process of systematic inclusion of the use of ICT in its educational project, this process is given in a planned manner, with several steps that contain: teacher training, technology generation and assistance to users. In general terms, the formative experience of integrating ICT into the UPS educational project can be considered productive and efficient. In this regard, it is worth noting that the virtual cooperative learning environments, known as AVAC, are a space created with the purpose of facilitating all the tools that exist on the Internet, necessary for cooperative learning. Their use is one of the obligations of teachers upon joining the UPS, who must generate 3 The learning resources for the Web, which in turn can be used at any time by students. The AVACs allow collaboration in the study modalities: virtual, face-to-face, distance and blended learning, in each of the UPS sites, interacting cooperatively as a support to the face-to-face class days. The implementation of the AVACs implies having a support team that collaborates with the entire methodological and technological process required, which is why the UPS has an Academic Unit that provides support in the different sites to support the AVACs in the learning modalities mentioned, with the help of guides and training in pedagogical aspects that respond to the use of ICTs. Despite all these achievements, the use of the AVACs is still insufficient, in addition to the fact that many of the teachers contin.