Innovation
Innovation is a fundamental aspect of any organization's quality development and improvement processes, as it allows for correcting system deficiencies or weaknesses, or highlighting its potential, through the timely incorporation of methodological, organizational, technological, and other innovations, evaluating their impact, and integrating them into its routine operations.
The University of La Laguna (ULL), like other Spanish universities, is currently undergoing a transformation of its university model toward new scenarios arising from the changing demands of the Information Society and the European Higher Education Area. Information and Telecommunications Technologies (ICT) and new teaching methodologies are undoubtedly becoming a key strategic element that facilitates the adaptation of the university system to new educational scenarios.
The promotion of improvement and innovation is determined by the response to the challenge of incorporating new methodologies and technologies into university teaching. The ULL articulates various services and strategies to support teaching and learning, with a comprehensive approach to integrating methodologies and technologies into the various innovation and experimentation processes.
The University of La Laguna has been developing a series of initiatives linked to innovation in the context of improving teaching quality. The objectives and actions developed can be summarized as follows:
In recent years, the University of La Laguna (ULL) has developed a series of initiatives linked to innovation in the context of improving teaching quality. Among these initiatives, the calls for educational innovation projects stand out.
- Educational Innovation Projects: annual call that promotes the implementation of new innovative actions in the teaching-learning process or to optimize its potential.
- Program to Support Face-to-Face Teaching through ICT Tools: Annual call for applications to promote the use of virtual classrooms as a resource to support university teaching and for the virtualization of tutoring.
- Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs): Annual call for proposals to promote the development of audiovisual educational content and its publication in massive open online courses.
- Open Course Ware (OCW): Annual call for applications to promote the development of open-source course content for courses, seminars, workshops, etc., within the university community. Since the 2008-2009 academic year, the ULL has joined the Open Courseware (OCW) Consortium through the Universia Foundation, an initiative that emerged at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2001.
- Pills of knowledge: Call for the creation of open digital teaching materials.
- Educational Innovation Conference: A series of workshops aimed at exchanging and discussing teaching experiences on educational innovation among teachers participating in the Call for Educational Innovation Projects.
- Publications on teaching innovation in university education: Edition of the communications presented at the Educational Innovation Conference.
- ULLMedia: Educational communication and outreach platform of the University of La Laguna, featuring educational videos, reports, and documentaries of academic interest. ULLMedia is a platform founded in 2009 that currently has more than 1,600 educational videos and 10,000 followers on its YouTube channel.
- Registry of Consolidated Educational Innovation Groups: List of interdisciplinary collaborative working groups concerned with improving teaching through innovation in teaching practice.
- Educational Innovation Awards: Recognition of the most relevant Educational Innovation Projects in the field of teaching.
- Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) Awards: Award for the most relevant MOOC courses taught by faculty from the University of La Laguna.
To develop various initiatives aimed at promoting innovation, research, development, and dissemination of good teaching and learning practices, the ULL has:
Multimedia and Audiovisual Content Unit: The Multimedia and Audiovisual Content Unit (ULLMEDIA) is the technical unit supporting the creation of digital multimedia and audiovisual content. It is responsible for the communication and educational dissemination of knowledge and the advances made in this field within the academic institution.
Office of Quality and Educational Innovation: It is the body that manages the calls for Educational Innovation Projects, their respective awards, and the Registry of Consolidated Educational Innovation Groups.
Unit for Virtual Teaching: It is the technical support unit for the development of virtual teaching. It is responsible for providing technological and methodological support for in-person, blended, and online teaching, managing the operation of the virtual campus, and advising and training teachers on innovation and educational technologies.