Design of a diploma course for the guidance of cooperative learning with the virtual health classroom

Abstract

Introduction: In the new conception of cooperative learning in virtual environments, frequent transformations occur in the training process of new human resources in public health.

Objective: To design a diploma course for the guidance of cooperative learning with the use of the virtual health classroom.

Methods: A development research was carried out at the Faculty of Nursing-Technology of the University of Medical Sciences of Santiago de Cuba, with the participation of 35 professors, in the period from January to December 2023, for which theoretical, empirical, and statistical methods were used. The diploma course was submitted to the criteria of six specialists with more than 10 years of experience in teaching, and with teaching status of full and assistant professors, who provided evaluative judgments on its relevance and methodological structure.

Results: The documentary analysis allowed verifying the insufficiencies on the part of the teachers for the guidance of cooperative learning in virtual environments, group dynamics, learning strategies in a virtual context, as well as their little participation in development activities, that contribute to the improvement of professional performance in this area of knowledge. The above described motivated the design of the diploma program, with the aim of solving the declared problematic situations.

Conclusions: The designed diploma course contributed to the professional improvement of teachers for the guidance of cooperative learning with the use of the virtual health classroom in health technology programs.