PACIE Methodology Applied in Virtual Learning Environments to

Support Learner Academic Performance

Yesenia Cevallos-Villacrés

1,2

, Mirna Meza-Herrera

3,4

, Lorena Molina-Valdiviezo

1,2

Gabriela Torres-Flores

and Guillermo Machado-Sotomayor

1,5

Faculty of Engineering, National University of Chimborazo, Av. Antonio José de Sucre, Riobamba, Ecuador

DIMES, University of Calabria, Via Pietro Bucci, Rende, Italy

Department of Humanities, University of Calabria, Via Pietro Bucci, Rende, Italy

Foreign Languages Department, National Autonomous University of Honduras, Blvd. Suyapa, Tegucigalpa, Honduras

Department of Computer Science and Mathematics, University of Calabria, Via Pietro Bucci, Rende, Italy

Keywords: E-Learning, PACIE Methodology, Virtual Learning Environments.

Abstract: The Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) offers the students new opportunities for interaction and

exchanging ideas and concepts, exploring virtual resources, fostering an active and dynamic learning, all these

always supported by digital tools that allow academic improvement. This paper aims to present the experience

obtained when implementing a VLE, designed according to the parameters of the PACIE methodology, as a

strategy that permitted the utilization of Information and Communication Technology to increase performance

in the learning process of undergraduate Engineering students at the National University of Chimborazo in

Ecuador.

1 INTRODUCTION

According to The Internet Usage Statistics, the

number of global Internet users estimated for June

2014 was 3,035,749,340; fact that leads to the

question: Can we ignore the importance digital

technologies and Internet have in our lives, especially

in the educational field? The answer should be, not at

all. However it is crucial to bear in mind that the main

role of Information and Communication Technology

(ICT), in this sense, is to improve the teaching and

learning experience, not to substitute effective

pedagogy (Barr, 2004).

The ICT use in the performance of University

students is not exactly defined and there is not a

specific conclusion about it from the last two decades,

however it is possible to say that, ICT permits

students to become the new center of the educational

process, creating new opportunities to develop an

additional academic experience. This achieved when

being individually supported by the teacher,

discovering the new information once they analyze

the topics studied, having the chance to access the

information every time they consider it necessary not

being limited to face-to-face lessons in a physical

class. Students can overcome the emotional barriers

by being trained in online assessment, improve

research skills, explore various virtual resources, and

access to digital material in an asynchronous or

synchronous way. Furthermore they can share

experiences with other students regardless the place

where each one is, explore the topics that are

considered complicated, propose alternative uses of

tools and/or topics (stimulating the creativity) in the

virtual learning environment, and finally get involved

in the globalized employment of ICT (Ben Youssef

and Dahmani, 2010).

Student desertion is a major problem at University

education, just to mention the alarming statistics in

some countries such as Spain, United States, France

and Austria where the rate of desertion ranges

between 30% and 50%, while in Germany, the rate

goes between 20% and 25%, Switzerland between

7% and 30 %, Finland 10% and Netherlands between

20% and 30% (Cruz Sosa et al., 2010). This

phenomenon takes place mostly during the first

semester of almost any major field. Due to this, many

universities have determined the use of online

software in order to guide the students

administratively and academically (Edwards, Acosta,

Santos, and García-Ruiz, 2006).

246

Cevallos-Villacrés Y., Meza-Herrera M., Molina-Valdiviezo L., Torres-Flores G. and Machado Sotomayor G..

PACIE Methodology Applied in Virtual Learning Environments to Support Learner Academic Performance.

DOI: 10.5220/0005431702460252

In Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Computer Supported Education (CSEDU-2015), pages 246-252

ISBN: 978-989-758-107-6

 2015 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)

By adopting learning virtual tools is possible to:

change or enhance curriculum, work with a high

quantity of students, the advantage of using online

assessments and tasks, implement new strategies to

improve student performance, keep a detailed record

of every student’s grades to eventually justify the

academic student performance, direct on and offline

communication with students, provide feedback of

the academic process, giving less subjectivity to

grade students without leaving student-teacher

communication apart.

In Ecuador, particularly at the National University

of Chimborazo (UNACH), it is fundamental to

include methods, techniques and strategies that foster

meaningful, collaborative and participative learning,

encouraging students to become proactive and more

involved in their own learning. In order to succeed in

such purpose, it is indispensable to pose the design

and implementation of a virtual learning classroom;

making emphasis not only on technology to be

employed, but also on transition methodologies that

allow the improvement of learning techniques and

methods.

Consequently, the aim of this paper is to present

the experience obtained when implementing a virtual

classroom, designed according to the parameters of

the PACIE methodology, as a strategy that permitted

the utilization of ICTs to improve student

performance in the learning process. It is important

to highlight that the elaboration of this project is

supported by previous research and experiences

shown by different authors (Gallo and Zavalía, 2012;

Ruiz, 2012); as well as from our own training to

become “Experts in e-learning processes” achieved at

the Latin American Foundation for Technological

Advancement (FATLA, 2010).

The second section briefly describes the PACIE

Methodology in Virtual Learning Environment, then

the third one is dedicated to the Methods. The results

and discussions are reported in the fourth section; and

the conclusions close the paper.

2 PACIE METHODOLOGY IN

VIRTUAL LEARNING

ENVIRONMENT

2.1 Virtual Learning Environments

Virtual learning environment (VLE) means “a

software system that combines a number of different

tools that are used to systematically deliver content

online and facilitate the learning experience around

that content” (Thomas and Reinders, 2010). VLEs

make communication and collaboration tools

available, fostering the use of social software to

enhance online interaction. These types of tools can

be divided in two categories: simple environments

like chat or forums, and complex virtual worlds which

offer graphics, text and audio, and intercultural

activities, among others (Thomas and Reinders,

2010).

It is worth pointing out that technology has made

a great contribution to the shift of roles of students

and teachers in learning due to the vast amount of

resources that it provides, however, the success of the

employ of technology will depend on both technical

proficiency and pedagogical techniques that exploit

technology’s potential (Thomas and Reinders, 2010).

On the other hand, Barr adds that no matter which

approach to learning is adopted, a learning

environment will facilitate it, yet the four main

elements of a learning environment should be

considered:

 Tools, which comprise any type of material that

is utilized to aid learning.

 Resources, which are necessary to provide the

learner with the material s/he needs to study,

material that has to be relevant and meaningful

to the specific situation.

 People, which refers to the users of the

environment. Since the purpose of a learning

environment is to facilitate learning, this will

obviously require human participation. Since a

learning environment has to do with the

interaction between learners and teachers, it

must be designed taking both groups into

consideration, with the ultimate goal of being

pedagogically beneficial to the learner.

 Environmental design, which refers to the

infrastructure that will enable the distribution

of information or resources if the objective is to

make sure that all the aspects of the

environment work together and appropriately

(Barr, 2004).

It is likewise suggested that learning

environments should be assessed to evaluate their

effectiveness; a well-designed learning environment

will provide both authentic learning and appropriate

review, and one key element of reflection and

analysis is student satisfaction which is related to

academic fulfilment. If educators are successful in

assessing the learning environment, then they will be

able to search for alternatives and make accurate and

effective modifications that will gradually improve

education (Warger and Dobbin, 2009).



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2.2 PACIE Methodology

The PACIE methodology was created by Pedro X.

Camacho P., Engineer, MWA; founder and director

of the Latin American Foundation for Technological

Advancement (FATLA) and advisor to more than 270

institutions, educational programs and projects

throughout the world, executive chairman of Virtual

Group Corporation (Machado and Molina, 2014).

PACIE is a methodology that allows the use of

ICT Networks, as support to the learning process

and/or self-study, by enhancing the pedagogical

scheme of real education. This methodology takes as

key elements motivation and peer support, with the

quality and human warmth, versus the quantity and

indifference. In addition, communication and

information exposure are supported by social

processes that foster critical thinking and analysis of

the data to build knowledge, through sharing previous

experiences (Molina, 2012).

This methodology employs guidelines defined in

a virtual campus and determined by a transition

process of conventional and institutional classroom

events. Moreover, the possibility of searching the

Web in order to support the didactic tools utilized by

the teacher is created (Molina, 2012).

PACIE comes from the Spanish acronyms that refer

to the academic processes on which this methodology

is based: Presence (Presencia), Scope (Alcance),

Training (Capacitación), Interaction (Interacción),

and E-learning (E-learning).

The aspects that characterize the methodology

proposed by Pedro Camacho are the following:

 Prioritize motivation, peer support, quality and

human warmth, opposed to quantity and

indifference.

 Include social processes to the communication

and information presented to learners, which

foster critical thinking and analysis of data, and

permit to build knowledge from the interaction

and the exchange of educational experiences.

 Go beyond presenting and exposing

information; through guiding, interacting,

sharing knowledge, and allowing creative

learning spaces (Flores and Bravo, 2012).

The first phase of PACIE, Presence, refers to the

visual impact of the Virtual Learning Environment, in

which the following elements are highlighted:

Corporate Image, Extension and Structure, Image and

Animation and Colors.

Corporate Image: It is a definite element of

differentiation and positioning of the virtual learning

environment in relation to others. In the same way

education must adapt to changes at a high speed, also

teachers and their virtual learning environment must

adapt their image in order to maintain its validity.

The corporate image is the way in which it

communicates: who is it?, what is it?, what does it do?

and how does it do it?.

Extension and Structure: Refers to the balance

there must exist between the structure and

relationships among menus or indexes, covers and

content pages or any other graphics or linked

documents. The objective is to build a hierarchy of

menus and pages that look natural and well-structured

for the user.

Image and Animation: It becomes difficult to get

students motivated to be involved in the learning

objects without considering the visual impact of lines,

colors and their contrasts within the pages. Dense text

documents without supportive images, animations or

typographical variations are difficult to read,

especially in low resolution displays.

Colors: Refer to the consistency and

predictability of two essential attributes of any online

information system, helping users to identify the

origin and relationship of classroom resources.

The second phase of PACIE, refers to the

internalization of competencies to be achieved by the

network participants, considering the

communication, information and support interaction

(Flores and Bravo, 2012), as well as promoting

reflection on a large number of questions related to

institutional policies, the educative mission and

vision. This phase comprises the Standards,

Benchmarks, and Skills (SBS) to be developed in

students through the Web.

The Standards refer to the learning students are

expected to acquire. Generally, it is possible to have

several standards for each unit or learning topic. The

Benchmarks are useful to check whether the standard

has been accomplished or not. It is also possible to

have one or more marks for each standard; this will

depend on what is to be measured -which normally

has to do with theoretical / practical knowledge and

values. The Skills refer to the abilities of the

individual which make student every time more

competent to solve a task.

At this stage, it is necessary to consider the

academic, experimental and tutorial scopes to fulfill

the SBS (Fig. 1).

The third stage of PACIE is the Training. This has

direct concordance with the previous process, due to

the sequence of the 3 transversal elements that are in

PACIE: technological, pedagogical and

communicational (Molina, 2012).

Through VLEs, self-learning strategies, the

enrichment of complex knowledge are encouraged as

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248

Figure 1: Expectation to be reached.

necessary to promote work and collaborative learning

of the participants. Furthermore, the Cycle Design is

emphasized by these stages: research, planning,

creation and assessment, implementing Web 2.0

resources and tools, also stimulating the learning by

doing, collaborative work, and continuous research.

In addition, single and group tutorials are scheduled

by using video conferences, chats, text messaging,

among others (Flores and Bravo, 2012).

The fourth stage is Interaction, it is geared to

produce suitable interplay processes in such a way

that motivates the experiences that will generate

knowledge and facilitate tutorial processes. The

objectives to be pursued in this phase are: to foster

constant communication within the VLE, motivate

student online participation, encourage socialization

among the students in the course, generate interactive

VLEs by making use of resources such as

videoconferencing, social bookmarking, slideshows,

among others.

In this stage, the virtual classroom is divided in

blocks: Zero or Informational Block, Academic block

and Closing block, the same that in turn contain

sections that pool the resources and/or activities in

accordance with their functionality and usefulness.

Each section must be varied in order to avoid

monotony and boredom in the virtual classroom.

The Zero block (Fig. 2), is the most important part

of the methodological process, because it is the core

of the interaction within the Virtual classroom and the

source of the cooperative knowledge generated as a

result of a common and enriching experience for the

group members.

Figure 2: Informational block of virtual environment.

The Academic Block has information and subject

content, documents to be shared, links and the

thematic exhibition that is performed. This block

contains four sections: Exposure, Bounce,

Construction and Testing (Fig. 3).

Figure 3: Academic block sections.

The Closing Block (block of closure) is intended to

give assistance to conclude unfinished activities and

processes, to negotiate disagreements in assessments,

students’ feedback not only for the content and

structure of the classroom in itself, but for the tutorial

part. It contains the negotiation and feedback section

(Fig. 4).

Figure 4: Closing block elements.

E-learning is the final stage of the methodology, this

phase is more of the macro-curricular type than

micro-curricular, that is something inherent to the

Virtual Campus unlike the previous phases that are

clearly associated to the virtual learning environment

but also to the Campus on its organizational part.

The E-learning phase, allows to: become

acquainted on assessment criteria on Internet, blended

evaluations (virtual and face-to-face/traditional),

encourage critical thinking, automate testing

processes and combined online tutoring.

3 METHODS

3.1 Operative Model

The VLE was designed using the PACIE

Academic

Scope

•Time

• Information

•Resource

Experimental

Scope

•Experience

•Skill

•Knowledge

TutorialScope

•Frecuency

•Communication

•Motivation

ZeroBlock

Informationof

thecourse,the

tutorand

evaluation.

Sectionof

Communications

•Thecommunicative

processand

operabilityatthe

classroom.

Sectionof

Interaction

•SocialInteraction,

supportand

cooperativelearning.

AcademicBlock

Exposition

Section

• Information

•Links

• Documents

accordingtothe

subjectorunit.

BounceSection

• Activitiesofself‐critic

and

• Filters.

Construction

Section

•Knowledge

•Analysis

•Critic

• Discussion

TestSection

•Comparison

•Synthesis

• Verification

ClosingBlock

NegotiationSection

•AlltheCommunity

involvedinthelearning

process.

FeedbackSection

•Pedagogical

•Didactic

•Academic

PACIEMethodologyAppliedinVirtualLearningEnvironmentstoSupportLearnerAcademicPerformance

249

Methodology, which is described in section 2.2.

For this study the VLE was composed by 3

blocks: Informational, Academic and Closing. The

Information Block had three sections: Information,

Communication and Interaction.

The Information section included: Home Guide,

Course Presentation, Micro-curricular Syllabus and

Evaluation Rubric; in the Communication section an

Informational Forum (online Bulletin Board) was

included; in the last section Interaction, there were a

Social Forum and a Help Forum. These three sections

were constantly activated and updated during the

course. The tutor was responsible for creating and

managing the block.

The Academic block comprised the participants’

information and learning activities, consisting of five

sub-blocks, each one composed by one unit

previously designed in the micro-curricular syllabus

of Computing sciences and Language Programming

subject (Table 1).

Table 1: Micro-curricular Syllabus Units and the required

time to execute them.

Units Time

First Quarter

Unit 1: User – Computer interaction 1 month

Unit 2: Internet and its services 2 months

Unit 3: Electronic Spreadsheet 2 months

Second Quarter

Unit 4: Logical Programing 3 months

Unit 5: Mathlab 2 months

Each sub-block comprised three sections: Important

Information, Activities to carry out and Interesting

links and readings. The other sub-blocks were

designed exactly in the same way with each

corresponding unit.

Finally, the Closing Block showed a scenario

were the participants could say good bye to their

peers. Moreover this block displayed a survey to get

feedback in order to improve the VLE experience and

at last, the list of approved students was provided.

Fig. 5 shows the structural diagram of the VLE

design.

3.2 Subjects

This research was carried out at the Faculty of

Engineering at the National University of

Chimborazo. In the analysis process, first year

students (first academic period), enrolled either in the

subject of Computing Sciences and Programming

Languages of Environmental Engineering (EE) or

Industrial Engineering (IE) of the academic year 2010

Figure 5: Schema of the VLE design.

– 2011. The students were divided in two groups, the

first one called the experimental group, and the

second one the control group.

The programmatic academic contents, the time

invested in each unit, the assignments, and the

evaluations were exactly the same for both groups.

However the experimental group always made use of

the VLE for all the academic activities, while the

control group developed their activities using

physical or digital tools (but without the VLE).

The population (the sample in this was of 70

students (35 of EE, and 35 of IE).

3.3 Instruments

The final grade was basically obtained from the

average of the partial assessment (at the end of each

academic unit), assignments, and tasks developed in

class. The fully academic activity was constructed by

forums, chats, blogs, wikis, and video conferences.

Additionally, in the Closing Block, a

questionnaire was employed to evaluate the

usefulness of VLE as an academic tool.

VLE

Informative

Information

HomeGuide

Course

Presentation

Micro‐curricular

Syllabus

EvaluationRubric

Communication

Informative

Forum

Interaction

SocialForum

HelpForum

Academic

Unit1

Unit2

Unit3

Unit4

Unit5

Closing

Farewell

Survey:feedbackto

improvetheVLE

experience

Listofapproved

students

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250

3.4 Procedure

The lessons were developed in face-to-face modality

taking in to consideration the academic performance

of both groups. The respective units were covered by

providing feedback of the subject contents through

different types of academic elements, such as

activities carried out in and outside the classroom.

Nevertheless, the difference in the academic process

of both groups lies in how the VLE is employed. In

the experimental group it allowed interactivity,

communication, knowledge application, assessment,

classroom management from any computer device

and the on/offline teacher support. The variation with

the control group lied in the use of physical and digital

tools, with teacher support in face-to-face lessons or

through e-mails.

4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

With the application of the instruments detailed in

section 3.3, the following results were obtained:

As seen in Fig. 6, 13 students from the

experimental group, which represent the 37.14% ,

achieved a high average, 21 students (60%) had an

average middle grades, and 1 student (2.86%) had an

average low grade. In contrast, as shown in the same

figure, the high and low average of the control group

correspond to 10 (28.57%), 20 (57.14%) and 5

(14.29%) respectively.

Figure 6: Frequency of averages of the final grades in both

groups.

The statistical support that allowed to quantitatively

check the results embodied in Fig. 6, became

effective by using equation (1) representing the value

of T-Student applied in the research.

The T distribution-Individual was employed, to

compare the grades of the two groups of the research.

The value obtained from t

is 2.29.





















1









1













2















(1)

Where the parameters relating to E and C represent

statistical information of the experimental and control

groups correspondingly, in which:







6.0857, 



1.4425, 



35, 



5.400, 





1.7690, 



35.

The value of t

, was compared with the theoretical

value of t with 68 degrees of freedom and the value

of the level of Significance was α=0.05 (testing of

queues), t

=1.66 , as t

> t

, hence it could be proved

that the use of a VLE implemented with the PACIE

methodology improves the learners’ academic

performance; this was reflected in the learning

process and in the final results.

The opinion survey results were analyzed

(Closing block) to determine the operability of the

VLE. An average of 75% of the students who ranked

Figure 7: Level of students’ satisfaction in terms of

operability.

Figure 8: Level of students’ satisfaction in Academic terms.

PACIEMethodologyAppliedinVirtualLearningEnvironmentstoSupportLearnerAcademicPerformance

251

it as Excellent and Good was obtained (Fig. 7). The

71% of students pointed out that the VLE contributed

academically in the learning process (Fig. 8). Finally

in Fig. 9 it is highlighted that barely 11% of the

students were not satisfied with the use of the VLE.

Figure 9: Satisfaction of the use of the Virtual Learning

Environment.

5 CONCLUSIONS

The students from the experimental group

demonstrated a higher academic performance after

using the VLE as shown by the quantitative results

when applying the T-Student statistical method. The

same was ratified by the high acceptance percentages

collected in operability and academic support surveys

employed.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors are grateful to UNACH for logistical and

technical support during this research work. Besides,

we appreciate the help provided by the Computer

Center and the Faculty of Engineering of the same

University.

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