Conceptions of undergraduate students in Chemistry on the use of interactive interfaces in and for the activities developed in the distance course

Abstract

In cyberculture, educational practices find on the internet and web 2.0 a useful space to produce and share information and content. The unidirectionality conferred to mass media is the place for network multidirectionality, reconfiguring the logic of the communication system. In Distance Education (DE), the multiple interactive interfaces available on the network, such as e-mail, forum, chat, whatsapp and virtual learning environment (VLE), provide the interaction and interactivity of the subjects, fundamental conditions for a process dialogical communication with the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). In this perspective, this study is part of a master's research in Science and Mathematics Teaching, and aims to investigate which interactive interfaces are used by students of a degree course in chemistry in the distance learning mode in and for the course activities. It is a research with a qualitative approach and a case study. Data were collected through a questionnaire in addition to consulting the course's pedagogical project and other documents. The results show that AVA and whatsapp stand out as the most used interfaces in the course, the latter being characteristic of learning with ubiquitous mobility and there are indications that interactivity occurs between the subjects through the interfaces and the relationships established are in line with what waits for this type of education, as they recognize the need to contemplate cyberculture in the teaching and learning process.