Building Teaching and Learning Centers for Latin American Universities in the 21st Century

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic revealed the need to adequately train university faculty in digital competencies and the use of technology to support educational processes, including content generation, teaching instruction and assessment, among others. This training must be adapted to the context of each educational institution and to the rapid evolution of technologies that can be used to support academic processes. In this context, it is important to have proper
structures within the educational institution, such as the so-called Teaching and Learning Centers (TLCs), which are pillars of innovation, support teacher training, serve as spaces for experimentation and guide teachers in redefining their courses and generating the corresponding content. This article presents the work carried out for more than three years to build TLCs in Latin American universities, taking two universities in Guatemala and two in Colombia as examples. As part of this process, a Cooperation Network has also been created in relation to TLCs in Latin America to share contents and training actions and to serve as an observatory of trends in educational innovation.