HIU LEARNING MODEL

Creating a virtual education system is related to a set of activities that involve creating learning communities of practice, where it generates the interaction of the different actors involved in the educational system. Each course has the purpose of creation of the Learning Community. HIU starts by the fact that for a virtual education system it is essential the initial creation of a Learning Community (LC). The learning community, in turn, consists of a group of people who share emotions, values and common beliefs, and actively participate in the learning process. Considering that in modern society, knowledge has acquired a real economic value, the construction of knowledge is possible today by promoting the generation of a greater number of learning communities. Learning communities are articulated among students, professionals, social partners, schools, colleges, universities, or any other group of citizens or networks in order to generate knowledge with a social purpose. Moreover, the creation of virtual education environments facilitates the setup of learning communities and enables the transmission of information and knowledge, so that there is a direct relationship between learning communities and educational settings.

The design of the different types of virtual learning environments may depend on the learning objective, target audience, type of access (classroom, virtual or both), and content types. It is important to know how to use the learning environment, and to understand the significance of the tools and techniques that make the difference between. The main academic objective of HIU Learning Model is the creation of Learning Communities from the interactions created from the pillars that underpin the ecosystem: pedagogic mediations, student management system, and technology support. To achieve the institutional educational mission, the theories and applied pedagogical approaches are the student-centered and competency-based educational model, as well as problem-based and project-based learning approaches. These theories and approaches serve as a basis for curricular and instructional design, which allows the implementation of these in the teaching-learning process. The e-learning technological environment is an open educational ecosystem. It is composed by the following working platforms: Project Management, Student Information System (SIS), Learning Management System (LMS), Business Intelligence Suite, and Integration Hub to guarantee maximum efficiency and fluency of educational processes Students will each get their username and password to access the platform system. The learning educational ecosystem is set up for maximum interaction between the students, their instructors, and contents.

Project Management Platform: Manage complete projects, tracks time, plans resources and monitors performance.

Student Information System is a web-based application software designed to introduce a conducive and structured information exchange environment for integrating students, instructors, and the HIU administration. SIS functions as a data warehouse to keep student records in one place, managing the admissions process, handling billing, and more for HIU administrators and officials. A student will use the technology to check his/her class (s), grades, and attendance as well as to maintain communication with the Student Services and Accounting departments.

Learning Management Systems, and its design is a prerequisite to planning, organizing, and conducting educational processes mediated by technology and using communications and networks; it is also called using the term E-Learning.

Business Intelligence Suite is a reporting solution for power users who want to go beyond the data and dashboards.

Integration Hub is a tool that allows you to connect apps you use every day to automate tasks and save time. You can connect any of integrated apps together to make our own automations processes

The connection between all these platforms, students, instructors, and staff, are considered processes that occur within learning spaces and those that are outside them. This learning context considers the following aspects:

1. The educational process is aimed at forming subjects that act in different social systems.
2. The purpose is to form subjects, who as such act in the environment with purposes according to their contexts and competences.
3. The system establishes the relationships between the subjects and the objects of their action, and the subjects among themselves.

The learning context management performs the relationships promotion that occurs between the subjects that participate in the learning and knowledge process.

On the other hand, learning environments involve the articulation of those environments in which relationships between subjects can be established with tools and objects of knowledge. They are understood as physical, social, and educational conditions in which learning situations are located, the type of facilities, equipment, strategies, didactics, the context, and climate of social relations.

The principles of HIU learning model aimed at:

1. Achievement of self-management by students
2. Development of creativity
3. Meaning of the action
4. Participation (intervention in problems in different social and labor environments)

The management of the learning environment allows interactions among the participating subjects to promote the following types of learning:

1. Hyper-learning
2. Intra-learning
3. Interaction
4. Self-learning
5. Meta-learning

HIU Knowledge Management is organized through the management of the learning environment. This provision takes for granted the consideration of the dimensions:

1. Procedural
2. Affective
3. Social
4. Cognitive

In this way, the model can be schematized considering:

1. The subjects that learn
2. Managers of the learning environment
3. The interactions between these elements
4. Objects of knowledge, articulated with each other and available for its comprehension processing and transformation, through means, tools, and resources

QUALITY OF EDUCATION

Our operational quality model is an adaptation of the Five Pillars Quality Model of The Online Learning Consortium. The model considers the following categories:

1. Learning effectiveness
2. Cost-effectiveness
3. Permanent Access
4. Faculty Satisfaction
5. Student Satisfaction

STUDENTS RESPONSIBILITY AND DUTIES

Besides their financial responsibilities, students must comply with several responsibilities and duties. These are the following:

1. Students must produce original work. Plagiarism is penalized and not admitted as part of the academic ethics of Humboldt International University.
2. Students must follow Netiquette. As expressed before, there is an ethics and “etiquette” on the Net. Language use should always be respectful, cooperative, and ethical.
3. Students must keep their account and profile updated. This includes:

   A current photo

   Correct information (address, phone number, etc.)

   Documentation and financial information

4. Students must review and be aware of changes in the HIU platform to be able to master it for their use. This is done by exploring and learning the use of the courses’ sections and reading all the information the Technical Support and Student Services departments provide them.
5. Students must read the catalog and the courses’ syllabi, as part of their necessary knowledge of the courses and university policies and requirements. They must follow and enforce policies and procedures accordingly.
6. Students must submit assignments, forum posts and all course work on time.
7. Students must communicate with the university’s personnel. Communication is done in many ways (e-mail, web-conferences, forums, chats, office hours, etc.) and with different instances, instructors, staff, and fellow students. Communication is essential in online studies, where physical distances are great.
8. Students must develop the habit to search for information on the web. This is part of the learning process they develop throughout our careers, but it is also a responsibility that will improve the learning process.

MASTERING E-LEARNING ORIENTATION

The Mastering E-Learning orientation is a prerequisite to starting any degree program at HIU. This orientation helps students become acquainted with the university and acquire essential academic skills related to the online platform and course organization such as online behavior, time management, evaluation process, and online ethics that enhance their academic integration and success at HIU. This orientation is eight-week long and designed to help new students acquire basic academic competencies such as online behavior, time management, academic writing systems, online ethics, information search, and other important issues. The orientation will guide students to a better understanding of how to handle the online education process.

TECHNOLOGY REQUIREMENTS

All students are required to have regular and reliable access to a computing device like a regular desktop, or an electronic tablet, or a mobile phone, no more than 5 years old and Internet Access with 3.2 Mbps of bandwidth. The device must be able to run a Chrome web browser with cookies and JavaScript enabled. The device must have a camera or webcam, and have a screen of at least 5”, with speakers (internal or external) and a microphone (internal or external). The University provides cloud storage.