Análisis del e-liderazgo pedagógico en la enseñanza universitaria a distancia. Implicaciones para la mejora educativa

Abstract

This thesis, which belongs to the grouping of publications modality, addresses the importance of pedagogical e-leadership, understood as that oriented both to student performance and quality improvement, in Higher Education Institutions that teach in the virtual modality. The objective was to analyze the role of pedagogical e-leadership in virtual university teaching in the Spanish context through the International University of La Rioja (UNIR) and its impact on the effective management of virtual groups, on the academic performance of their students, and on the quality of the institutions, to define how the managers of these centers can promote both the improvement of student training and the quality of their degrees. For this purpose, a descriptive and quantitative methodology has been applied, using a non-experimental design by survey method, based on the implementation of the questionnaire: Adaptation of the VAL-ED to the Spanish university context. After an exhaustive review of the scientific literature, we proceeded to design the empirical framework for this work and found the need for an instrument appropriate to our study context. For this reason, the Vanderbilt Assessment of Leadership in Education (VAL-ED), a quantitative instrument for analyzing pedagogical leadership in the context of Higher Education in Spain, was adapted and validated, obtaining a questionnaire for each group of respondents with 108 valid items to analyze the pedagogical leadership of the managers of Higher Education institutions. To check the reliability of the questionnaires, Cronbach's alpha coefficient was calculated for each of them, obtaining the following values: 0.896 for the questionnaire for Supervisors, 0.948 for the questionnaire for Directors/Coordinators, and 0.938 for the questionnaire for professors. Subsequently, it was explored to what extent the influence of learning management in Higher Education and specifically in online training contexts, such as UNIR, is aimed at increasing and improving the performance of their students, as well as positively affecting the quality of the institution itself. Through the application of the VAL-ED, the effectiveness of the leadership behavior of the managers of those degrees that participated in the study has been identified, taking as a reference the competency standards of this instrument, and verified those areas of leadership behavior that represent the greatest strengths, limitations and main needs for improvement. On the other hand, to determine the impact of pedagogical leadership on the academic results of students and the quality of the institution, starting from the performance of educational leadership of the managers of the Faculty of Education of UNIR, we have been able to analyze the evidence on which the different groups of respondents are based to evaluate the leadership of managers, allowing us to find out, to what extent, these are determinants to assess the performance of learning management in Higher Education in on-line formative contexts. Likewise, it has also been possible to establish a relationship between pedagogical leadership and student performance, the quality of the institutions, and the perceptions of the main stakeholders, especially students, teaching and research staff, and administrative and management staff in Higher Education of the degree programs that participated in the study.