Dificultades de los estudiantes en la adaptación de la metodología de educación a distancia en la universidad nacional abierta y a distancia UNAD, CERES villa de san Sebastián de la plata, Huila

The open and distant university UNAD, Ceres Villa de San Sebastian de La Plata, in Huila, offers a distance educational model whose presence is decentralized to reach across the country, becoming an opportunity for easy access to higher education that seeks to contribute to the improvement of quality of life of population in every region of the country.

Since it is an innovative model in the education sector, there are a lot of difficulties of dissatisfaction in students attending this institution. This situation let to the development of a research with the aim of identifying and describing the main students’ difficulties when trying to adapt to the distance education system at the ODL UNAD. The research method applied in this study was the descriptive - quantitative approach, in which it was used techniques and instruments such as observation, interview and survey to the school leaders. The methodological procedures let find significant difficulties in students coming from the presence educational system. Most of them report dissatisfaction with the university training, economical difficulties for paying tuition and costs related to the development of the educational process.

The research showed, among others, that the time for the induction to this distance system was not enough, also that students do not use, or operate completely basic computer programs, and that they do not have easy access to Internet at home. The tutoring strategy is not efficient due to problems with schedule; situation that was accepted by the staff of the university. On the other hand, the lack of practice that allow to contextualize the theory with the practice was another relevant finding, not only for the students but also for the managers of the Ceres, Villa de San Sebastian La Plata

According to this study there are serious difficulties in the students’ adaptation to the distance education system, which should call the attention for seeking solution because it could be the cause of academic failure reflected sometimes on the loss of courses, poor results, or university desertion, among others.