Introduction.
Distance education has historically represented a teaching alternative for all those who cannot participate in the traditional educational system. Since its emergence there has been great controversy regarding the subject, due to the educational conception that emerges from it. Despite this reality, very strong changes are being experienced in the vision of this medium, making it increasingly accepted in all countries.
The main cause of this new perspective is due to the technological advances, especially in the field of telecommunications and information technology, that have taken place in recent decades.
These advances have endowed distance education with greater flexibility and self-management capacity, enabling it to emerge as one of the most qualified instruments to satisfy current demand for training.
Despite this, it cannot be ignored that there are limitations, for example of an economic nature, that do not allow this type of education to flow to all sectors of society, since it is only aimed at those people who may have access to technology..
Distance education has diversified its fields of application; Within this, the topics that have the greatest acceptance, according to the National Center for Education Statistics are: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences, and Business. The main areas in which these topics can be developed are postgraduate, basic education for adults, continuing education program for professionals and teachers, among others.
From this it is evident that one of the most attractive sectors today for distance education is precisely the postgraduate sphere in business administration issues, which is one of the fundamental lines of work of the Center for Studies in Management Techniques (CETED).
CETED, as a training and training center for leaders, based on the potential demand of a wide and interesting target audience, has recognized the advantage of taking advantage of this opportunity. For this it has an infrastructure that allows the use of this means of education and teachers with great capacity and experience in this field.
For this reason, CETED has proposed a strategy regarding the development of distance courses. To start this process, it has been decided to focus on topics that are considered useful for the exercise of administration and that are attractive to managers.
This work will present a proposal for the design of a course for distance training, which is entitled “Problem solving process”.
Development
In the course " The Problem Solving Process " one of the most recurring topics in the administrative world is developed, since administration is a constant decision-making process, for which it is vitally important that Cuban administrators have tools that facilitate this process and, in turn, encourage these decisions to be innovative and sources of new ideas; from his own experience and the assimilation of knowledge of administrative science.
In addition to the interest that the chosen topic can arouse, it is enriched by the possibilities offered by distance education, the use of computer technologies, will allow flexibility in terms of the management of their time by the leader, the absence of the requirement of periodic class attendance, the possibility of continuing the studies from any part where they are forced to move for different work or personal reasons, in short, the high degree of autonomy that the student enjoys in the system, is what determines that the course be an attractive option for professionals in the business sector.
Specifically, this course provides managers with the possibility of having a widely used tool at a minimum cost of access, with materials reviewed by a group with extensive experience in the subject and with its adaptation to the specific realities of the country..
On the other hand, the link established between the teacher and the student allows the tool to be adapted to the student's own needs and their company, favoring the student to be advised by the teacher about real situations that arise.
Program
The course program aims to know the elements and tools that facilitate effective decision making and that can be used in solving management problems, based on the Problem Solving Process technique developed by the Xerox company.
This technique has six fundamental steps that start from the identification and analysis of the problem and conclude with the evaluation of the solution, this whole process favors the obtaining of ideas and teamwork for decision-making, with which they are also applied methods of teamwork and creativity, which supports the process itself with other important skills for management work.
Content
The content of the course will be structured in two modules, the first with a duration of one month and the second with a duration of three months:
Module 1. Analysis of creativity instruments.
In this module students will be prepared in the different creative work techniques that will support the subsequent modules. Within the techniques we find instruments: to generate ideas and collect information, to reach consensus, to analyze and present data, and to plan actions.
Module 2. Problem solving process.
This module will discuss the steps of the problem solving process: Identification of the problem, Analysis of the problem, Generation of potential solutions, Selection and planning of the solution, Application of the solution and Evaluation of the solution.
To develop this module, it will be demonstrated how starting from a given problematic situation and through the studied process, applying the techniques studied in the previous module, possible alternatives can be generated that respond to that situation, and then select and work with the best of them.
Evaluation system
The evaluation will be both group and individual, where the participation that the students have had throughout the course in the participation options offered by the platform and the delivery of a final work of application of the knowledge and skills acquired will also be taken into account.
This final work consists of the delivery by group of a case where, based on a problem situation that has occurred in the respective companies of the students, the application of the problem solving process, which has been developed by them and where the use of the tools learned during the course is contemplated. The work must be delivered after two weeks after the end of the course, for its subsequent presentation.
Course
The course has been designed for a total of 30 managers, with a duration of four months. Due to the characteristics of the environment and the subject that is taught, it is important that the number of students does not exceed that number in order to achieve the interaction that is necessary between the members of the group.
In addition, this allows the teacher to maintain greater contact and control over the students, facilitating adaptability and flexibility to the needs of the students.
The course has two fundamental methodological moments, one for the acquisition of the necessary theoretical knowledge and the other for the practical application of these theories.
There should be no dichotomy between these moments, since both will be occurring in unison; following the logic of what in a traditional education is called conference-discussion method, with which the integration of theory with practice is sought.
For the first moment, the course has an extensive bibliography both in theoretical materials of the proposed technique (web pages, articles written by the main specialists in the subject and documents), as well as other additional readings that will enrich and expand theoretical knowledge on the subject. theme, which are designed and structured by a group of teachers from the center.
This bibliography must allow managers to appropriate all the theoretical knowledge necessary for the course and makes other materials available that will be used to promote dialogue and offer proposals for steps to follow.
So that you can understand the process itself and discover other options that may be valid for making decisions.
The second moment, will be developed through a series of activities that are characterized by their interactivity.
The most used teaching method for this will be the study of cases (found within the materials) and the presentation of own experiences that also serve as case studies, creating a kind of workshop where the student, based on their problems real, you can reflect with your group and generate possible solutions.
Professor
The course will have a main teacher, who will bear all the responsibility for it. This teacher will also reserve the right to invite other specialist teachers in the topics that are debated, which will take place at the times established for it.
The teacher is the coordinating, advising and collaborating element of all the implementation of the course, and on its performance and clarity of objectives, the success or failure of this course will largely depend.
The teacher is also the force that fosters closeness among the students and favors the emergence of the feeling of belonging to the group.
To achieve this, it must generate debate among the students so that a greater relationship between them is established and channel the discussions towards the achievement of the course objectives, create adequate groups and spaces that facilitate controversy and evaluative control at all times.
Course structure
The virtual environment that was used for the design of the course was Virtual TelEduc. This platform was developed by the University of Campinas in Brazil and is designed for research with its operating system being Linux.
The choice of this environment is based on its use in the diploma course on " Distance education and new information and communication technologies " that the authors recently studied and with which several teachers at the center are familiar, which would facilitate its use. of it by different teachers of the center.
This platform provides 17 central options or tools to support the courses that are mounted on it, some are mandatory and others are optional.
For the design of this course it was decided that all the tools would be used, planning the way in which some of them (optional) would be used with the aim that there would be a logical process in the course and that the final result would be as expected.
Conclusions
In Cuba there is a great need for training of managers, a situation that is fundamentally given by two aspects:
- First, there is no management career, so many managers do not have this profile developed and come to positions based on other types of skills and must create skills in this area. Second, as management is a novel science and in which the dynamics of the environment impose great and constant changes in the topics it deals with, managers cannot keep up with new approaches.
These two situations support the need for academics dedicated to the administration to create flexible and updated courses, focused on the main problems that Cuban managers have to face.
To achieve this, it is important to strengthen academic-business relationships so that teachers can create courses tailored to the needs of Cuban leaders.
Given the situation that managers have in a matter of time, spatial location and cost, distance education is one of the fundamental alternatives for training.
Taking into account these two problems of the Cuban leadership, this course proposal "Problem solving process" was made as a first step that CETED takes in search of responding to those needs.
