Mendive. Journal on Education, january-march 2022; 20(1):9-22

Translated from the original in Spanish

Original article

Preparation of collaborating teachers to develop the "University at Home"

La preparación de los docentes colaboradores para desarrollar la "Universidad en Casa"

Lázaro Arsenio Artiles Vargas¹ http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6188-5303
Armando Acosta Iglesias² http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0395-5155
Liset Veitía Mederos¹ http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4119-780X

¹Central University “Marta Abreu” of Las Villas. Cuba. lavargas@uclv.cu, lisetvetia@uclv.cu
²University of Pinar del Río "Hermanos Saiz Montes de Oca". Cuba. armando.acostai@upr.edu.cu

Received: June 07^th, 2021.
Approved: December 02^nd, 2021.

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic prevented the Sucre Mission in the year two thousand twenty-one from developing the educational teaching process through its historical forms of organization; this situation led to the question: how to prepare the collaborating teachers of the Sucre Mission to develop the "University at Home"? The objective of this work was to propose the strategy that was carried out for the preparation of the collaborating teachers of the Sucre Mission, in function of the development of the "University at Home" in the State of Delta Amacuro, in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. This emerged from the action-research process; methods and techniques of the qualitative research criterion, the interview, the survey and the focus group discussion, were used in order to achieve the proposed purpose. The main result obtained from the research process was the preparation strategy of the collaborating teachers of the Sucre Mission to develop the "University at Home" in the State of Delta Amacuro, as well as the system of actions that appeared as part of the four stages that comprise it: diagnosis, planning, execution and evaluation. This strategy allowed the preparation of the Mission's collaborating teachers, through the organizational forms of professional preparation.

Keywords: teacher; strategy; Sucre Mission; preparation; "University at Home".

RESUMEN

La pandemia de COVID-19 impidió que en el año 2021 la Misión Sucre pudiera desarrollar el proceso docente-educativo a través de sus formas históricas de organización; esta situación condujo a la pregunta ¿cómo preparar a los docentes colaboradores de la Misión Sucre para desarrollar la "Universidad en Casa"? El trabajo tuvo como objetivo proponer la estrategia que se llevó a cabo para la preparación de los docentes colaboradores de la Misión Sucre, en función del desarrollo de la "Universidad en Casa" en el Estado Delta Amacuro, de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela, la cual emergió del proceso de investigación-acción; se utilizaron métodos y técnicas del criterio cualitativo de la investigación, la entrevista la encuesta y el grupo focal de discusión, en función de lograr el fin propuesto. El principal resultado obtenido del proceso investigativo fue la estrategia de preparación de los docentes colaboradores de la Misión Sucre, para desarrollar la "Universidad en Casa" en el Estado Delta Amacuro, así como el sistema de acciones que surgieron como parte de las cuatro etapas que la conforman: diagnóstico, planeación, ejecución y evaluación. Dicha estrategia permitió la preparación de los docentes colaboradores de la misión, través de las formas organizativas de preparación profesional.

Palabras clave: docentes colaboradores; estrategia; Misión Sucre; preparación; "Universidad en Casa".

RESUMO

A pandemia do COVID-19 impediu a Missão Sucre de desenvolver o processo ensino-educativo em 2021 por meio de suas formas históricas de organização; Essa situação levou ao questionamento: Como preparar os professores colaboradores da Missão Sucre para desenvolver a “Universidade em Casa”? O objetivo do trabalho foi propor a estratégia que foi realizada para a preparação dos professores colaboradores da Missão Sucre, a partir do desenvolvimento da "Universidade em Casa" no Estado Delta Amacuro, da República Bolivariana da Venezuela, o que emergiu do processo de pesquisa-ação; Utilizaram-se métodos e técnicas do critério qualitativo da pesquisa, a entrevista, o levantamento e a discussão em grupo focal, a fim de atingir o objetivo proposto. O principal resultado obtido do processo investigativo foi a estratégia de preparação dos professores colaboradores da Missão Sucre, para desenvolver a "Universidade em Casa" no Estado do Delta Amacuro, bem como o sistema de ações que surgiu como parte das quatro etapas que o compõem: diagnóstico, planejamento, execução e avaliação. Esta estratégia permitiu a preparação dos docentes colaboradores da missão, através das formas organizativas de preparação profissional.

Palavras-chave: professores colaboradores; estratégia; Missão Sucre; preparação; "Universidade em Casa".

INTRODUCTION

The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic affects all spheres of economic and social life on the planet. The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is also suffering the effect of this epidemic, which threatens to immobilize the development of the academic year. Universities and Educational Missions, involved in this complex panorama, have the need to create alternatives to fulfill one of the main aspirations of the revolutionary government, which consists of raising the cultural and educational level of all Venezuelans.

The Sucre Mission, within the Social Missions, assumes as its objective the inclusive training of professionals committed to the new republic that is being built and to the values of the revolution. Faced with such challenges imposed by the necessary social isolation, it was decided to continue developing the academic year, this time from the houses. The idea starts from the budget to make each home a classroom; that, under the direction of parents, neighbors and staff with the necessary preparation, can contribute to the training of the professional. Thus it arises the novel idea of the "University at Home".

Carrying out this idea requires the preparation of collaborating teachers, to develop an efficient teaching-educational process. According to Amaya et al. (2018): "Before requiring university professors to respond to the challenges of education in the 21st century, we must first generate confidence in them to increase their strengths, improve their skills and abilities, as well as increase their academic potential as agents of change in any educational context" (p. 106).

Therefore, the preparation that is planned must be directed to: how to achieve that the collaborating teacher is prepared to transmit and make the content of his program available to the winner?

It is estimated that the most feasible way should be through the use of communication applications and platforms (WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Telegram and Google Hangouts); But in many settings, this problem is exacerbated by the fact that there is a generation of education professionals who belong to the so-called "digital migrants", who "must be coupled to the own generation of digital natives; for them, the acquisition of skills in the virtual environment requires time and additional efforts "(Soler and Borjas, 2019, p. 94).

Undoubtedly, this situation constitutes another new challenge that must be overcome for the sake of the efficiency and effectiveness of the process, which can only be achieved by developing an adequate preparation of the collaborating teachers, where it is possible to combine the social needs, the potentialities of the achievers and collaborating teachers, as well as the opportunities they have.

This work is based on the proposals made in the Ministerial Resolution (2/2018), where the preparation is understood as that part of the methodological work that "is carried out both individually and collectively and is developed in the central headquarters, in the municipal university centers and subsidiaries" (p. 6).

Likewise, the aforementioned document states that this preparation that is developed "It is carried out collectively, will have as an essential feature the systemic approach and will be carried out for all types of course and at each of the organizational levels of the teaching-educational process, prioritizing educational work from instruction" (p.6).

It is aimed at increasing the efficient performance of the functions of the teacher to plan, organize, execute and control the teaching-educational process in a setting in which they are not used to doing their work.

The new conditions impose the development of the distance teaching-educational process, based on the use of applications and communication platforms, as the main mediation support. García Domínguez (2020) shows how in the international sphere and in Cuba, distance education has been worked by different authors.

In the Venezuelan sphere, García (2001) defines Distance Education as: "A technological system of bidirectional (multidirectional) communication, which can be massive, based on the systematic and joint action of didactic resources and the support of an organization and tutoring, which, physically separated from the winners, promote independent (cooperative) learning in them" (p. 8).

This physical separation can be less remote if communication applications and platforms are used in it.

Related to this topic, Martínez (2016) proposes a Learning and Knowledge Technologies Teacher Training Program (TAC) at the Libertador Pedagogical University, Barinas nucleus, in Venezuela.

Considering all these assumptions, it is determined that the "University at Home" is a modality of distance education, which aims to develop the teaching-educational process in pandemic conditions.

For the development of this research, the criteria of Miranda et al. (2017) referring to the work of the Robinson, Ribas and Sucre missions with the integration experiences from the University, which provided valuable resources for the preparation of collaborating teachers and other agents who participate in this training process of the "University at Home"

In this sense, it is proposed that the actions that are designed should be aimed at continuing with the quality training of university graduates, through the use of communication applications and platforms, to contribute to the training and development of knowledge, skills and values, necessary for their future professional performance.

This thought breaks with the traditional form of preparation in the Sucre Mission, the presence, giving way to distance training, a modality for which many collaborating teachers do not have the adequate preparation.

This situation leads to the question that constitutes the problem to be solved in this study: how to prepare the collaborating teachers of the Sucre Mission to develop the "University at Home"? The purpose of this work is: to propose a strategy for the preparation of collaborating teachers of the Sucre Mission based on the development of the "University at Home", in the Delta Amacuro State of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The investigative process was developed in the Sucre Mission in the Delta Amacuro State, of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. For the research, the criterion of Jordán et al. (2015) on participatory action research, who state that "it is a conventional (traditional) research, whose notorious feature is to involve the participation of a community, which is involved in an investigative or action process for development" (p. 19).

The population was made up of six coordinators of university villages, eight coordinators of training programs and five members of the collegiate body, all of whom were considered as managers. In addition, it is complemented by 12 Sucres advisers from other states, 30 collaborating teachers and 650 achievers from the Sucre Mission in the Delta Amacuro State, While the sample includes the nineteen directors (Village Coordinators, training programs and collegiate body), in addition to the 30 collaborating teachers.

In the work, techniques and methods of qualitative research are used, which are put into practice in the course of the sequence of cycles in which the pedagogical intervention was implemented, depending on the preparation of the collaborating teachers to develop the "University at home". Three intervention cycles were planned, which took place between March and January 2021.

In the first cycle, information collection methods were used through document review, in order to establish theoretical assumptions about teacher preparation for distance education, the use of communication applications and platforms, as well as how to properly structure the idea of the investigation.

The documentary analysis addresses the following aspects:

a. Previous proposals on the preparation of collaborating teachers for distance education, using communication applications and platforms.

b. Methodological guidance received for the implementation of the "University at Home".

As part of this cycle, a survey was carried out to verify the knowledge of the collaborating teachers about communication applications and platforms, to implement the "Home University", structured based on the criteria of Jordán et al. (2015), where it is stated that: "it is a technique for acquiring information of sociological interest, by means of a previously prepared questionnaire, which allows knowing the opinion or assessment on a given matter, of the subjects selected in a sample" (p. 66).

Another of the techniques used was the interview and it is conceived as "a technique of gathering information through a professional conversation, which in addition to offering information about what is being investigated is important from an educational point of view. (Jordán et al., 2015, p. 63). It was applied to the directors of the Mission and its objective was to determine how to implement the actions to carry out the "University at Home".

To identify the applications and platforms to be used in communicating with the winners, it was decided to conduct a survey of winners selected by each training program in the four municipalities of the state, in order to know which were the applications or communication platforms they had to access to the "University at Home".

Another of the techniques that was used was the focus group discussion, with advisers in office in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and former advisers of this same mission, to determine the forms of preparation, objectives, contents and forms of evaluation, which in their judgments they are more feasible to achieve the stated objectives; the focus group discussion was assumed to be: "A qualitative technique for studying the opinions or attitudes of an audience, used in social science and marketing studies. It consists of a meeting of a group of people, between 6 and 12, with a moderator in charge of asking questions and leading the discussion (Ñaupas et al., 2018, p. 303).

In the second cycle, as part of the process lived to contribute to the preparation of the collaborating teachers of the Sucre Mission, to develop the "University at Home", scientific-methodological workshops were developed, which, for this work, are identified through what was expressed by Añorga (1995), where he states that they constitute "a form of professional improvement where knowledge is collectively constructed. Decisions and conclusions are the result of collective mechanisms" (p. 29).

The debate constitutes an essential element in the structure of the workshop, to identify the main applications and platforms for the development of the "University at Home"; for reflection and debate within the workshop, we started from the analysis of the orientated indications "The ends and the guidelines that were pursued with the implementation of the" University at Home ".

As a culmination of the process, a variant of the participatory technique "Key Words" presented by Bermúdez et al. (2002), with the aim of inquiring about the contents addressed.

In addition, specialized conferences were developed, following what was stated by Añorga (1995):

The specialized conference is the presentation of a scientific content, logically structured before a wide audience where the information is unidirectional. His exhibition has a creative and investigative character, and in it problematic approaches are present (…). The success of this form of professional improvement depends a lot on the quality of the presentation and the personality of the lecturer. (p.29)

After the conferences, the dynamic technique "Remove Obstacles" was applied (Bermúdez et al., 2002), to establish the criteria on the main difficulties that exist when developing the practice.

Scientific-methodological debates were also developed, following the postulates of Añorga (1995), who conceives it as one:

    A form of professional improvement that encourages the production of knowledge and values at the same time as human growth, aimed at scientific exchange on updated topics in a group of participants that can be carried out within the framework of work groups, study centers, in methodological preparation or in other forms of methodological work organized for this purpose (p. 10).

They set out to assess the position of the collaborating teachers to incorporate the contents of their subjects through their potential, that of their winners and the applications and communication platforms.

During the debate, an observation guide was used, with the aim of evaluating the interventions made by the collaborating teachers when referring to the knowledge of the info technological tools, to prepare the teaching through Information Technology and Communications and the motivation before the problems that arise in the development of the teaching-educational process.

As a result of the techniques used for the evaluation of the conference, the workshop and the debate, and of their results, a third cycle was proposed.

The document review was used as a tool; In addition, a survey was applied to the winners in order to verify their level of satisfaction.

Through a survey of managers and collaborating teachers, the criteria that they had on preparation were verified. Another of the techniques that closed the cycle was the focus group discussion with Assessors Sucre from other states, where they were presented with the results achieved during the period after applying the actions.

RESULTS

The application of the methods used allowed obtaining the following results:

A review of documents was carried out, which confirmed that there was no evidence of work that could serve as a model to develop the "University at Home", based on the pandemic situation. It was also determined that some guidelines had been given for the use of communication applications and platforms in order to develop the "Home University", but these were not necessary to carry them out.

The survey applied to the 30 collaborating teachers of the Sucre mission in the State, to verify the mastery of the applications and communication platforms, showed that, for the most part (sixteen of them), they did not dominate their management; nine had some control over these and only five had control over them. In addition, it was determined that the teachers who handled them were the newest, while the older ones had great difficulties working with them and did not consider their use as an element to develop the Teaching-Learning Process; in their entirety they expressed that they had never considered the possibility of using them.

All respondents expressed the opinion that they had never had the possibility of receiving methodological training, in terms of the use of applications and communication platforms; those who had some domain or mastered them had accessed their knowledge through practice and had never used them in terms of teaching.

The result of the interview with directors of the Sucre Mission: six coordinators of university villages, eight coordinators of training programs and five members of the collegiate body, for a total of nineteen, in order to determine how to implement the actions, showed that there was no unified criterion for their development; only six of the interviewees mentioned some of the platforms or applications to be used, the rest believed that indications from higher authorities should be expected. Of the six interviewees who presented their criteria on the platforms or applications to be used, none had mastered a methodological procedure on how to carry out this implementation.

The survey of the winners selected by each training program, to find out which were the communication channels they had to access the "University at Home" showed that, due to the complexity of the territory and the socioeconomic conditions of the winners' participants, it was necessary to use more than one platform or applications as a way to develop the "Home University".

The triangulation of the data obtained led to the conclusion that a strategy was necessary for the preparation of collaborating teachers to develop the "University at Home".

The results of the bibliographic review on the subject showed that it is directed towards three essential elements: distance education, ways and ways in which it has been developed and the methodological procedure to carry it out. Its treatment showed that there is a well-founded experience of the realization and development of distance education worldwide and in the Americas, as well as in the Venezuelan context, that there is a methodological procedure in the realization of distance education and use of different ways and forms, but they were not contextualized to the characteristics of the Delta Amacuro state, did not they take into account the territorial particularities of this state and none of them developed under pandemic conditions.

The focus discussion group consisted of 12 participants; it had a novelty, as it became necessary to use Information Technology and Communications as a means of exchange between the participants. The conclusive criteria that emerged from the debate were:

• There are references on distance education, but none obey the conditions of the Delta Amacuro State, which is highly complex due to the physical dimensions of the geographic space it encompasses and because it is an eminently fluvial state.
• There are no known references for distance education, based on a pandemic situation and less so in the Venezuelan context.
• That the main applications or platforms to use were WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Telegram and Google Hangouts; it was also proposed to continue with the use of e-mail.
• That the specialized conference, the workshops, the scientific debate, the methodological meeting and the demonstration activities were the forms of improvement to be used to prepare the collaborating teachers of the Sucre Mission.
• The contents to be addressed in the overcoming should be directed towards the following: distance education, its principles, characteristics and potentialities; main applications and communication platforms to develop the teaching-educational process in pandemic conditions; methodological procedure for planning the class at a distance from the main applications and communication platforms; the evaluation through the different forms; the independent work of the winners; the establishment of links between the evaluation, as well as the applications and communication platforms to develop the teaching-educational process.
• That the theoretical and methodological assumptions that supported the strategy were the postulates of the Historical-Cultural Theory, given its methodological value to understand the process that is developed, when recognizing the role of education in the progress of humanity, where man, through his actions, can appropriate the culture of others who preceded him as a historical-social legacy.

The pedagogical support of it was found in the system of didactic principles exposed by Labarrere and Valdivia (1981):

1.  Principle of the educational nature of teaching: by using the potential of communication applications and platforms to contribute to the education of the future professional, taking into account their interests.

2.  Principle of the scientific nature of teaching: because it started from the use of the scientific method as a premise for structuring and shaping the actions to be developed; In addition, the results expressed by previous investigations related to these topics are considered.

3.   Principle of affordability: the actions that were developed were planned based on the diagnosis and the possibilities of the participants to achieve the proposed ends and objectives.

4.   Principle of the systematization of teaching: independent work was used to consolidate the teaching content of each of the training programs.

5.   Principle of the relationship between theory and practice: to establish the relationships between the elements raised by the theory and the revealed experiences of social practice, depending on the actions to be carried out.

6.   Principle of the conscious and active character of the winners under the teacher's guidance, for the planning and execution of the strategy, which aimed to develop the "University at Home", where the personological elements of the process intervene: the teacher who plans, guides and evaluates the task system and the participants, who under this guide and with the necessary levels of help proceed to develop them.

7.   Principle of solidity in the assimilation of knowledge, skills and habits: through actions the knowledge and skills that they already possessed from previous stages were applied; but at the same time they were acquiring and forming others that constitute support for their future professional work.

8. Principle of attention to individual differences within the collective nature of the process: the actions that were proposed are individualized according to the potentialities and shortcomings shown by each of the participants in the process.

9.   Principle of the audiovisual character of teaching. The union of the concrete and the abstract: by using objective reality, as well as the main social processes and phenomena that influence the process.

As part of the pedagogical support, the laws enunciated by Álvarez (1999) were assumed; the first of these laws expresses the "Relations of the teaching-educational process with the social context: the school in life" (p. 87); in as much as, these actions are aimed at solving a problem that originates from the needs of the practice and, when implemented, contributed to solving a social need. While the second of these laws, the "Internal relationships between the components of the teaching-educational process: education through instruction" (Álvarez, 1999, p. 93), instructed the participants and they were educated in the systems knowledge, values and principles of society.

The pedagogical categories: education, instruction, teaching, learning, training and development also constituted essential elements in the support of the strategy.

We proceeded to form the strategy, which is submitted to the criteria of six of the participants of the previous focus group so that they could express their judgments on it. The selection of these participants was based on: experience in the teaching field and distance preparation, knowledge and mastery of platforms and applications of communication technologies and work experience in the context of the Delta Amacuro state.

The elements that were evaluated were: objectives of the strategy, contextualization of the strategy, actions to achieve the preparation of collaborating teachers in order to develop the "University at Home".

For the assessment, a scale from 1 to 5 was proposed, where inadequate was assigned the value (1), not very adequate (2), moderately adequate (3), quite adequate (4) and very adequate (5).

The criteria issued by these were:

• Five of the participants considered that the objective of the strategy was adequate.
• For four of them, the structure and contextualization of the strategy was very adequate and the rest expressed that it was quite adequate.
• Regarding the actions to achieve the preparation of collaborating teachers to develop the "University at Home", four evaluated it as very adequate; one as fairly adequate and one as moderately adequate.

The fundamental criteria exposed by these were that:

• Actions should continue to be refined and brought closer to diagnosis.
• Consider the preparation and motivation of teachers.
• They had to do a good planning of the ways to prepare the teachers.

As positive elements, they stated that it is a novel way out, which tries to give an argument to the situation that existed in the state with respect to the development of the "University at Home".

After analyzing the criteria provided, we proceeded to reformulate the strategy, which was conformed according to figure 1. This was again sent to the experts, who evaluated it as very adequate in its entirety.

From the applied technique entitled "Removing obstacles" it was possible to determine that there were objective obstacles such as: lack of means, implements, difficulties in connectivity and subjective difficulties, given by the incomprehension of some of the participants in assuming new conceptions on how to develop the Teaching-Learning Process; In addition, it was possible to establish as positive elements that it was possible to articulate the platforms with the different ways to develop the Teaching-Learning Process, as well as the scope of a correct procedure when planning the class and establishing the links and the evaluation of the achievers.

The observation guide that was applied during the development of the debate allowed us to assess that the collaborating teachers showed knowledge of the applications and communication platforms to prepare the teaching. Motivation was appreciated to solve, through communication platforms and applications, the problems that arise in the development of the teaching-educational process.

At the end of the application of the actions of the strategy, a review of the planning of activities developed by the collaborating teachers in each program was developed, selecting three protocols in each of these programs. The purpose was to evaluate the quality, relevance and methodological procedure used in the classes, based on the use of communication technology applications and platforms. It was found that twenty-seven of these complied very adequately with the proposed methodological procedure, two complied with it quite adequately and the rest did it inadequately; in twenty-seven protocols, it was evidenced that the suggestions worked for the planning of teaching activities were assumed through communication applications and platforms.

A satisfaction survey was developed for the winners, which was sent digitally through the WhatsApp, Facebook, Messenger and Telegram platforms, to all the winners. This was answered only by 571 of them, for 87.8%. Of the 571 winners who participated, regarding the criteria on the quality of the class and the affordability of the content through the applications and communication platforms, it was obtained that: (87.04%) valued it as very adequate, 8.5% as adequate, 1.4% as inadequate and the rest as moderately adequate. 100% asserted that a better exchange is established between the collaborating teacher and the group through this form; 94% considered that there is objectivity in the evaluation and 98% appreciated that there is potential to continue studying the subject in depth.

The interview with directors and collaborating teachers to obtain evaluative criteria of the actions that were implemented allowed to determine through their main evaluations that: these were novel and that they prepared the faculty; In addition, it was possible to motivate the collaborating teachers, who already had a methodological procedure, which allowed to corroborate the effectiveness of the actions developed.

Finally, a focus group discussion was carried out to obtain criteria for the results. For this, the participants were sent the conclusions of the planning review, the minutes of the survey of the winners and the interviews with the managers, in order for them to issue criteria on the effectiveness of the proposal. These stated as main criteria that: the strategy met its objectives, was well structured and that the most important result was in the degree of satisfaction of the winners.

In conclusion, the main results obtained were:

• Preparation strategy for collaborating teachers of the Sucre Mission, to develop the "University at Home" in the Delta Amacuro State.
• The theoretical and methodological assumptions on which the proposal should be built, using international and Venezuelan experiences, regarding distance education and the use of technologies.
• The organizational forms of professional improvement (the scientific workshop, the conference and the scientific debate), through which collaborating teachers could be prepared in a short time to develop the activities of the "University at Home".
• The main methodological contents to be dealt with, aimed at the planning of the virtual class, the preparation of independent work, the evaluation, the use of applications and communication platforms, to bring the content to the winners.
• The preparation of collaborating teachers in the methodological procedure, using communication applications and platforms.
• Transform the modes of action of collaborating teachers in relation to the fundamental forms of teaching and the use of information technologies in them.

 
Fig. 1- Strategy for the preparation of collaborating teachers of the Sucre Mission based on the development of the "University at Home" in the Delta Amacuro State of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

DISCUSSION

The preparation of the collaborating teachers of the Sucre Mission in the Delta Amacuro State to develop the "University at Home" is achieved through a strategy that involves elements of distance education and the use of communication applications and platforms.

It agrees with Juca (2016) when it states that "the impact of the advancement of telecommunications in distance education has made it possible to move from traditional teaching to the delivery of online courses (…)" (p. 108).

With the emergence and advancement of applications and communication platforms, the teaching-educational process can be developed, making face-to-face not an element that makes it impossible.

On the other hand, these applications and communication platforms allow interactivity in real time between collaborating and successful teachers, which makes it possible to establish the necessary links between the two personological components of the teaching-educational process.

Also "it is important to know the requirements for teacher training (...), it is essential to generate spaces for reflection to overcome barriers or promote the implementation of correct practices for innovation in distance education programs" (Juca, 20016, p 111).

It is concluded that this idea is demonstrated in the implementation of the strategy; The organizational forms of professional improvement (the scientific workshop, the conference and the scientific debate) become the essential space for reflection of the collaborating teachers who intervene in the implementation of the "University at Home" and, in this exchange, they emerge the actions that enable the conformation and implementation of the methodological procedure for its development.

García Domínguez (2020) states that "The role of the teacher in distance education systems is deduced that their activity, more than teaching, focuses on the orientation of learning, the teaching-learning process is transformed into a orientation-learning process" (p. 92).

This is a question with which one disagrees if it is assumed that teaching is a pedagogical category that includes the organization of cognitive activity. In the case of distance education, this organization manifests itself through the forms, routes, applications and platforms of communication to be used, to deliver content as a category, which encompasses much more than knowledge to the winners.

Therefore, in this process of the "University at Home", as a form of distance education, not only would knowledge be oriented, but also to develop a content that brings together values, points of view, and Cosmo vision ideas, to contribute to the formation of the personality of the achiever.

Hence the importance of teacher preparation, because in the teaching process the fundamental interrelation occurs, the teacher-winner relationship.

Furthermore, learning as a categorical pair assumes the direct or indirect influence of the teacher; It is considered that in distance education both influences are manifested and its purpose is to train the winner, starting from planned activities with the aim of developing knowledge, skills, habits and values that allow them to assume the historical moment in which they live.

On this value judgment, it was decided to structure the different organizational forms of professional preparation to address the methodological contents that were developed, from the planning of the virtual class, the preparation of independent work, the evaluation of the use of applications and platforms of communication to bring the content to the winners.

It is concluded that, to achieve the objective of the work, participatory action research was used, making possible the formation of actions in the three intervention cycles that allowed structuring a strategy for the preparation of collaborating teachers who would participate in the "University at Home", which constitutes a form of distance education.

It is determined that, through the organizational forms of professional improvement (the conference, the debate and the scientific-methodological workshop), the methodological contents can be addressed to prepare the professors who participate in the "University at Home".

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