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Perceptions and research trends in ICT-mediated
educational innovation: case studies in the Latin
American context.
Percepciones y tendencias investigativas en innovación
educativa mediada por TIC: caso estudios doctorales en el
contexto latinoamericano
Luis Ernesto Benavides-Sellan
*
Christian Antonio Pavón Brito*
Nathaly Geovanna Vera Ramírez*
Mariela Alexandra Tapia León*
ABSTRACT
Scientific production has the development of
doctoral theses as one of the indicators of regional
academic development. Within the educational field,
academic production should consider innovations
supported by ICTs in order to be in line with
scientific progress. The first objective of the study
was to identify trends in doctoral theses that have
investigated ICT-mediated educational innovations in
the Latin American context during the period 2016-
2021. For this purpose, a study will be conducted in
university repositories. The second objective was to
learn about the perceptions of the teachers of a HEI
in relation to educational innovation. At the time of
the survey, these teachers were pursuing doctoral
studies or had completed them. A mixed
methodology was used, applying questionnaires to
the participating teachers, in this case belonging to
the Philosophy Faculty of the University of Guayaquil.
In order to determine research trends, 88 doctoral
theses from 16 Latin American universities were
reviewed. A prevalence of research based on e-
* Magister en informática educativa Universidad de Guayaquil
Luis.benavidess@ug.edu.ec https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2171-1157
* Magíster en Enseñanza de la Física, Universidad de Guayaquil,
christian.pavonb@ug.edu.ec, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8913-1546
* Lic. En ciencias de la Educación Informática, Universidad de
Guayaquil, nathaly.verar@ug.edu.ec, https://orcid.org/0009-0009-1518-
3085
* Magister en Gerencia de Tecnologías de la Información y
Comunicación, Universidad de Guayaquil, mariela.tapial@ug.edu.ec
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2609-5955
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learning and a perception of lag between educational
innovations and doctoral production topics in the
region on the part of teachers were obtained. It is
proposed that Latin American doctoral programs
linked to education should emphasize the
development of proposals for the dissemination of
innovations, in order to be in line with global
advances.
Keywords: Repositories, ICT, Innovations.
RESUMEN
La producción científica tiene al desarrollo de tesis
doctorales como uno de los indicadores del
desarrollo académico regional. Dentro del campo
educativo la producción académica debe considerar
las innovaciones apoyadas en las TIC para estar
acorde al avance científico. El primer objetivo del
estudio fue identificar las tendencias en tesis
doctorales que han investigado sobre innovaciones
educativas mediadas por TIC en el contexto
latinoamericano durante el periodo 2016-2021. Para
este fin se realizará un estudio en repositorios
universitarios. Como segundo objetivo se planteó
conocer las percepciones de los docentes de una IES,
en relación con la innovación educativa. Estos
docentes se encontraban al momento de la encuesta
cursando estudios doctorales o los han culminado.
Se utilizó metodología mixta, aplicando cuestionarios
a los docentes participantes, en este caso
pertenecientes a la Facultad de Filosofía de la
Universidad de Guayaquil. Para el objetivo de
conocer las tendencias investigativas, se revisaron 88
tesis doctorales provenientes de 16 universidades
latinoamericanas. Se obtuvo una prevalencia de las
investigaciones basadas en e-learning y una
percepción de rezago entre las innovaciones
educativas y las temáticas de producción doctoral en
la región por parte de los docentes. Se propone que
los programas doctorales de Latinoamérica
vinculados a la educación deben hacer énfasis en el
desarrollo de propuestas de difusión de
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innovaciones, para estar acordes a los avances
globales.
Palabras clave: Repositorios, TIC, Innovaciones.
INTRODUCTION
For the advancement of societies in all areas, it is essential that scientists make
contributions in the different disciplines of knowledge. In this sense, doctoral academic
training programs are one of the essential paths to follow in order to make the
dissemination of science viable. Doctoral academic production should, therefore,
contribute to improving the possibilities for societies to adapt to the transformations
and demands of a highly changing reality. (Castillo-Bustos et al., 2023).
Among the innovations in the educational field, the contribution of information and
communication technologies has undoubtedly provided countless opportunities to
enrich learning processes. The incorporation of ICTs in higher education implies
incorporating pedagogical practices that allow educational transformation. (Ricardo
Barreto and Irriarte Diaz Granados, 2017).. Education can achieve significant goals
through the use of technology and through a variety of resources and tools that help
school development. Among these tools, blackboards, books and/or ICT are
considered, however, many institutions do not have the digital resources to carry out
innovative teaching (Camacho et al., 2020).
In the current educational context, many educators are incorporating ICT in the
teaching processes; from these, it is possible to improve procedures, tools and analytical
strategies for education (Cortes, 2016). The use of digital instruments, such as mobile
devices, help to have quick access to information through educational applications, since
these tools are related to our daily life, also allowing learners to learn anywhere (Roman
and Gomez, 2018).
There are several possibilities offered by information and communication technologies
to mediate between content and students, facilitating learning processes. Among these
technologies, augmented reality stands out (León Rodríguez and Viña Brito, 2017),
which allows presenting content through multiple media, enriching static media or
adding complementary information. Another technology that is making significant
inroads in the training field is virtual reality (Alvarado et al., 2019). Virtual reality allows
the interaction of the senses through visual stimuli, similar to the elements of the real
world.
Continuing with ICT tools that can bring innovations in education, we can mention
mobile applications, 5G technology, As a Service, Internet of Things and artificial
intelligence. Mobile applications and devices have enabled the ubiquity of learning and
expanded the possibilities for a greater number of students to access technological
resources. These resources were previously limited to computers (Chamba Zarango et
al. (Chamba Zarango et al., 2019).. In a short period of time, the technology for mobile
device connectivity has moved from the 3G-based model, towards 4G and more
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recently to 5G. 5G technology opens up a wider range of usage possibilities for mobile
and related devices. (Noboa Salavarría, 2020)..
Another tool that offers important possibilities for innovation in education is
undoubtedly 3D printing. The possibility of building models with the assistance of a
computer and then reproducing them on the physical plane offers educators the
possibility of enhancing the creative potential of students. Among its many applications,
this technology is being used in the medical field for the creation of prostheses, as well
as in the training process of future doctors. Such is the case, for example, at the
University of Malaya, located in the Federation of Malaysia. At this center of study,
medical school students, with the guidance of their professors, design 3D models of
human body parts. These printed models allow them to have an experience closer to
the real thing than if only digital or static images were used. (Jaramillo Castro, 2019).
As a Service technology is another innovation that overcomes the storage limitations of
desktop devices. It is based on the use of cloud storage. At the same time, this
technology makes available to students the use of applications that due to their high
cost of licensing or physical requirements may not be accessible to the educational
institution. (Delgado, 2017).
Finally, among the most recently applied technologies in education, artificial intelligence
stands out. Although artificial intelligence applications can be used as a means to avoid
fulfilling academic obligations, they have a great potential to produce learning. The fact
of reducing the time needed to search for information, generate content and assume
conceptual positions under different parameters can and should be taken advantage of
by educators. Among these tools, one of the most popular at the time of writing this
study is undoubtedly CHATGPT (Baidoo-Anu and Owusu Ansah, 2023)..
However, despite the potential benefits of the technologies described in the previous
paragraphs, technological isolation or little contact with educational innovations
produces a low development in the area of digital competence. This deficiency may be
one of the causes for not allowing significant progress in the different areas of learning,
even disengaging the development of knowledge. The limited access to innovations in
the area of ICTs affects all aspects of the life of a society and education cannot be
abstracted from this. Consequently, academic production at both the undergraduate
and graduate levels will be affected by this gap. Consequently, the timeliness and quality
of doctoral production in the area of ICT-mediated educational innovation will be
directly linked to the introduction of technological innovations in the context of
societies (Vera-Rámirez and Benavides-Sellan, 2021)..
Since Ecuador is a developing country, it is essential for society to adapt to new
technologies in order to achieve significant academic production. The low use of these
resources would cause a delay in the production of knowledge and in turn a difficulty in
achieving national development objectives.
Based on the above, we propose to identify the trends in doctoral theses that have
investigated ICT-mediated educational innovations in the Latin American context during
the period 2016-2021. As a second objective, we analyze the perceptions of teachers
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who are currently studying or have completed doctoral studies in relation to ICT-
mediated educational innovations.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
The present study has a quali-quantitative approach, on the one hand, qualitative
elements were used to classify the information and determine research trends, the
period of time to which the doctoral academic productions corresponded was 2016-
2021. Quantitative elements were used to express the results of the data collection
instruments in numerical terms. Similarly, bibliographic research was used, since a
review of the doctoral production was carried out to catalog the information. We also
had the help of different research methods such as inductive-deductive and historical-
logical. Induction-deduction contributed to a more generalized concept based on the
particular observations of each country in the academic repositories consulted.
Meanwhile, the deductive-inductive process made it possible to analyze the general
trends in innovation, which were contrasted with the individual academic productions
consulted.
On the other hand, with regard to the techniques applied, the survey was used to collect
data for the analysis of teachers' perceptions and the word cloud was applied to identify
trends in doctoral theses. The survey was operationalized through a seven-question
questionnaire addressed to 20 professors of the University of Guayaquil, Ecuador,
belonging to the Faculty of Philosophy, Letters and Educational Sciences. This faculty is
in charge of teacher training at this IES, therefore, the participants are immersed in the
educational reality. The participating teachers were selected because they are studying
or have completed their doctoral studies. The word cloud was applied in the search for
key words in each of the selected theses.
For the application of the survey, an electronic form was created in the Microsoft Forms
tool of Office365. The surveys were sent to teachers who voluntarily agreed to
participate in the study and who at the time of the study were in doctoral programs or
already had a PHD degree.
For the selection of the theses used in the research, the following exclusion criteria
were applied:
• Postgraduate offerings of higher education institutions, which should be related
to education.
• Relevance: Those doctoral productions that include among their topics
educational innovations mediated by information and communication
technologies were selected.
• Accessibility: Only theses from open academic repositories were considered.
• Temporality: The selected theses were included in the period 2016-2021.
Once the exclusion criteria described above were applied, the academic productions
were selected from a total of 16 university institutional repositories, as shown in Table
1. The total number of academic productions reviewed was 88.
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Table 1. List of HEIs corresponding to the consulted repositories.
Headquarters
UNIVERSITY OWNING THE
REPOSITORY
Number of
productions
consulted
MEXICO
Iberoamerican University
1
Mexico
Autonomous University of Aguas Calientes
1
Mexico
Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher
Education (ITESM)
2
Venezuela
Universidad Central De Venezuela
3
Venezuela
University Of Carabobo
4
Colombia
Universidad Nacional De Colombia
6
Puerto Rico
Ana G. Méndez University
5
Puerto Rico
University of Puerto Rico
4
Peru
San Martin De Porres University
10
Argentina
National University of La Plata
5
Argentina
Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences
(FLACSO)
2
Uruguay
Del Ort University Uruguay
4
Brazil
University of São Paulo Usp
18
Brazil
Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio De
Mesquita Filho
19
Brazil
Federal University of Rio De Janeiro
2
Honduras
National Autonomous University of Honduras
2
Total
88
RESULTS
Once the selection criteria for the doctoral productions had been applied, the online
application NubeDepalabras.es was used to analyze the documents in PDF format. The
titles, abstracts and keywords of the selected doctoral productions were taken into
consideration. From the initial results obtained, a purification of terms is made in order
to include only those terms that are related to technologies in the educational context.
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The results of the word cloud can be seen in Figure 1, which shows a prevalence of e-
learning, digital literacy, mobile learning and social networks in education. The
prevalence of e-learning topics is due to the demands of global education. This situation
increased even more due to the increase in online training needs due to the COVID-19
pandemic.
Figure 1. Results of the application of the word cloud in the academic productions
consulted.
Source: Study conducted
As for the results of the survey applied to the professors, we inquired about the area of
study of the doctoral program that they studied or are currently studying. Most of the
respondents were preponderantly inclined to pursue their doctoral studies in the area
of humanities, as shown in Figure 2. Given the humanistic educational nature of the
Faculty of Philosophy, Sciences and Letters of the University of Guayaquil, it is logical
that most of the teachers are inclined to pursue their doctoral studies in that field.
Figure 2. Area of study of the doctorate that he/she studied or is currently studying.
Another significant result was the item in which teachers were asked whether they
consider that there is a lag in the implementation of educational innovations supported
20%
65%
0%
10%
5%
Area of study of the Ph.D. degree you have
completed or are currently pursuing
Ingenierías
Humanidades
Ciencias de la Salud
Ciencias Sociales y
Jurídicas
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by ICTs. The question asked the teachers' perception based on their experience as
participants in doctoral programs. As shown in Figure 3, most of the teachers consider
that there is a significant lag in relation to the topics of the doctoral proposals. This
perception responds to the comparison with educational innovations of recent incursion
in developed countries.
Figure 3. Perception of lag in the implementation of ICT-mediated educational
innovations in doctoral production relative to first world countries.
Source: Teacher Survey
The teachers were also asked what they considered to be the main difficulties for the
implementation of ICT-supported educational innovations in Latin American HEIs. The
main difficulties identified by the teachers were economic, management, limited
dissemination and research aspects, as shown in Figure 4. This situation is due, among
other reasons, to the fact that many of these institutions do not have the necessary
support for the implementation of technological resources in teaching or that access to
these resources is excessively bureaucratized. It is therefore important to incorporate
policies that improve the accessibility and dissemination of ICT-mediated educational
innovations, so that Latin America's academic population can access the potential
benefits of educational innovation.
50%
40%
5%
5%0%
Perception of lag in the implementation of ICT-
mediated educational innovations in doctoral
production in relation to first world countries.
Totalmente de acuerdo
De acuerdo
Indiferente
En desacuerdo
Totalmente en
desacuerdo
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Figure 4. Difficulties for the implementation of ICT-supported educational innovations
in Latin American HEIs.
Source: Study conducted
CONCLUSIONS
It was observed that some of the two educational innovations were not addressed in
the doctoral productions consulted. Among them, the following stand out: 5G
technology, As A Service, artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things. In this sense,
it can be considered that these technologies have not yet been sufficiently considered
within the doctoral topics in ICT-supported educational innovations and doctoral
academic production. Therefore, it is important to broaden the topics and the vision of
doctoral students so that the potential benefits of these innovations are disseminated in
society. To cite a specific case, especially in recent years applications based on artificial
intelligence are gaining significant notoriety (Ouyang et al., 2022).. In other contexts,
artificial intelligence has been implemented for several decades (Chen et al., 2022). (Chen
et al., 2022). Therefore, it is necessary to rethink doctoral proposals in order to include
these scarcely addressed topics.
Through the bibliographic study of ICT-mediated doctoral theses, it was possible to
identify that the country with the highest academic production was Brazil. This is
because it offers several possibilities compared to other Latin American countries to
apply for a doctorate. Also, Brazilian universities generally have the necessary resources
to carry out research through technology and thus achieve significant production. Many
Latin American countries have a low yield of doctoral productions due to technological
backwardness. This result corresponds to the results presented in the study by Castillo
Bustos, Marcelo (2023). In this study, the prevalence of doctoral productions in Brazil is
exposed, marking a clear difference in relation to other countries in the region.
Through the analysis of the survey, it was observed that most of the teachers have
completed or are currently pursuing their studies in different countries in Latin America
and Europe due to the accessibility they offer. In Ecuador, at the moment there are few
doctoral training programs, which in many cases has forced professionals to seek
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
Aspectos económicos
Aspectos actitudinales
Complejidad de las gestiones para su…
Escasa investigación relacionada a las…
Dificultad de acceso a las investigaciones…
Deficiente difusión de las investigaciones…
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alternatives abroad. The majority perception of teachers is that there is a lag in the
implementation of educational innovations supported by ICTs and academic production
in the Latin American context. This perception responds to the fact that there are
several difficulties for the implementation of these innovations, such as economic aspects
and the complexity of management. The result obtained is related to the findings of
other studies, which show a gap in investment in technology and research between Latin
America and developed countries, (Mendoza, Rizo, Beltrán, & Concepción, 2021)..
The current trend in doctoral production in Latin America is an increase in the number
of programs and consequently in academic production (Mendoza, Rizo, Beltrán, &
Concepción, 2021). (Mendoza, Rizo, Beltrán, & Concepción, 2021).. However, doctoral
production in the Latin American context still lacks the necessary impact and recognition
(González et al., 2020). Finally, it is concluded that it is necessary for HEIs in the region
and governments to develop policies aimed at promoting the improvement of the levels
of academic production in doctoral studies. Within these policies, the need to innovate
teaching practice should be incorporated and considered, and ICTs are an opportunity
to achieve this goal.
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