\ These studies respond to the demand of people who, for different reasons, cannot attend the educational centre on a regular basis.
\ The Decree also regulates the operation of the Institute of Distance Learning of the Balearic Islands (IEDIB), created in 2018 and which has 2,250 students.
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The Consell de Govern has today approved the Decree regulating distance and blended learning, and establishing the structure, organisation and operation of the Institute of Distance Learning of the Balearic Islands (IEDIB).
The regulation of these studies as well as the implementation of the IEDIB (2018) meant giving a response, differentiated by teaching regime, to the demand of people who, for different reasons, cannot attend regularly to the educational centre to study non-university education.
In this situation, the Department of Education and Vocational Training, through the Directorate General for Planning, Organisation and Centres, has now considered it necessary to go a step further and regulate distance and blended learning, as well as the structure, organisation and operation of the IEDIB, and to provide it with a legal regulation with the regulatory status appropriate to its nature. Thus, this Decree is structured, on the one hand, with the regulation of distance studies and the structure, organisation and operation of the IEDIB, and, on the other hand, with the general regulation of blended learning studies.
For the purposes of the provisions of this Decree, distance studies are those that can be taken without the need to attend a teaching centre, by means of telematic teaching that enables the interactivity of students and teachers located in different places, without prejudice to the performance of certain compulsory tests and practices in vocational training cycles, which will require the physical presence of students or, where appropriate, their personal and reliable identification.
Regulating a new teaching model
The Institute of Distance Learning of the Balearic Islands (IEDIB) was created in 2018 with the aim of ensuring that the training provided is characterised by diversity, openness and flexibility, as well as favouring access to this training and making it possible to combine it with other courses or with work and complementing it with other training actions and strategies.
The IEDIB offers a training model in which the student carries out his or her activity in the network and on the network, and can have face-to-face advice at the collaborating centre. The student becomes the centre of the model and of the learning process, which is based on interaction, support and cooperation through the virtual learning environment.
The Decree establishes that distance learning will be carried out through the use of information and communication technologies, and will be developed through a virtual learning platform that allows communication between students and teachers, collaborative work, the sending and evaluation of tasks and activities, the incorporation of tools for the self-correction of interactive activities, the monitoring of the activity of the participants and the use of student assessment mechanisms.
The teaching and learning processes will be developed using specially designed teaching materials. The approach, language, structure, format, length, links, multimedia elements and interactivity will be appropriate for use in virtual environments. These teaching materials will facilitate learning autonomy and will be complemented by a set of training and guidance actions aimed at students, which will constitute the monitoring of their learning process and tutorial support.
With regard to the organisation and development of distance learning, they are based on a process of student training, which is complemented by the application by teachers of teaching methods based on:
- a system that promotes autonomous learning combined with collaborative learning and that allows:
(a) Identifying and incorporating appropriate self-regulated learning strategies by the teacher.
b) To apply a pedagogy based on the design of connections and collaborations between teachers and students in order to create an educational community with the aim of taking advantage of this flow of information within the same virtual environment to improve the teaching and learning process.
c) To strengthen and improve the figure of the tutor in distance learning.