Abstract
Research competencies are adopted in higher education, however, little is known about the role of these competencies in the virtual environment. This research is one of the first to describe research competences in postgraduate students in virtual learning environments. An observational design study using the research competences questionnaire was conducted with 89 students. The findings indicate that cognitive and teamwork competences are the most predominant (58.4% and 71.9%) and that the weakest areas are related to technological competences 33.7%, methodological competences 39.7% and project management 22.5%. These findings highlight the need to improve curricula in postgraduate schools where research competences are strengthened by prioritising technological, methodological and project management aspects so that students obtain the necessary skills and abilities and can improve their research processes.
 
 Keywords: research competences, virtual learning environments, research training.
Highlights
Research is increasingly important in higher education for several reasons such as the tendency to improve education quality, as well as the need to produce and spread knowledge properly and competitively in order to train professionals capable of generating it, from a scientific and humanist perspective, to respond to multiple social problems (Rojas & Espejo, 2020; Bucarey, Araya-Castillo & Rojas-Vallejos, 2020).Scientific research shown in the development of research competences represents one of the pillars of the University as a training institution; it is observed that students do not develop these competences (Guamán Gómez, Herrera Martínez & Espinoza Freire, 2020) for different reasons, whether they be financial, institutional, from the teacher or the student (Antúnez Sánches & Veytia Bucheli, 2020)
Virtual learning environments have become the new normal due to COVID-19 and many institutions rely on digital tools for teaching and learning (Lacka, Wong & Haddoud, 2021; Torres Martín, Acal, El Homrani & Mingorance Estrada, 2021)
We consider that this study has broadened the understanding of research competences in virtual environments, all the more so as it seems that this will be the new normal as far as higher and postgraduate education is concerned
Summary
Research is increasingly important in higher education for several reasons such as the tendency to improve education quality, as well as the need to produce and spread knowledge properly and competitively in order to train professionals capable of generating it, from a scientific and humanist perspective, to respond to multiple social problems (Rojas & Espejo, 2020; Bucarey, Araya-Castillo & Rojas-Vallejos, 2020).Scientific research shown in the development of research competences represents one of the pillars of the University as a training institution; it is observed that students do not develop these competences (Guamán Gómez, Herrera Martínez & Espinoza Freire, 2020) for different reasons, whether they be financial, institutional, from the teacher or the student (Antúnez Sánches & Veytia Bucheli, 2020). There is a clear curriculum showing a more informative than formative research teaching, where the research attitude is limited to the research methodology teaching. This is why curricula of different training levels should be organised in order to expose the student to situations that make the student question reality and have a scientific attitude and interest in the truth, as well as gain the necessary knowledge and skills to make research guarantee the progress of discipline and practice (Díaz-Barriga Arceo, López-Ramírez & López-Banda, 2020; Rojas Arenas, Durango Marín & Rentería Vera, 2020). The development of these higher education competences would stimulate the future professional intellect, with a scientific behaviour based on the deep knowledge of research as their fundamental way of working (Gayol Gayol, Montenegro, Tarrés & DOttavio, 2018; Morales-Carías, 2020)
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