CREACIÓN DE UN ESPACIO VIRTUAL PARA ASESORÍA Y TUTORÍA DE INVESTIGACIÓN EN POSTGRADOS DE INGENIERÍA

Abstract

This research was carried out to support the process of consulting and mentoring work degree or graduate thesis in Engineering at the Venezuelan central region. The main objective was to study the feasibility of creating a virtual space (Web portal) that allows the construction of a new online tutor-student relationship to be able to improve the process of the thesis development in Higher Education institutions. It was a descriptive field research. Interviews, surveys and document review were used to gather data. The sample were constituted by 12 graduate students of Engineering from the University of Carabobo and by 90 graduate students from the University Simón Bolívar. Results show the need to consolidate a virtual platform that provides flexibility of access, elimination of space-time barriers, access to updated materials and direct communication with specialized tutors. Through the feasibility study we met the need or demand of the student. The portal consists of several modules developed and provides virtual classrooms for each tutor in the Moodle platform and also the availability of digital tools and information related to the mentoring process, research training methodology, standing out that the relationship between tutor and student was conceived under the modality of a blended learning for educative purposes.