Recursos Didácticos Digitales

Digital Teaching Resources

The webinar explains how teachers can find, evaluate, and share digital materials with students in virtual classes—and when it may make sense to create materials themselves.

1. Open Educational Resource Repositories

Open educational resource (OER) repositories collect learning materials that can be accessed online. The presenter describes the OER concept as originating with UNESCO in 2002 and connects its development to MIT’s publication of recorded classes.

Common features of repositories include:

• Multiple formats: Text, images, videos, web pages, and other multimedia.
• Metadata: Information such as authorship, subject, educational level, concepts, and format, which helps users find relevant resources.
• Dedicated search tools: Repository search engines use metadata to support more targeted searches.
• Different classification schemes: Resources may be organized by subject, institution or funder, format, geographic coverage, or type of material—for example, full open courses or individual learning objects.

Examples discussed include ERIC, Khan Academy, Procomún, UNAM’s online resources and repositories, and the IPN learning portal. Repositories can save teachers time because materials may already be formatted and institutionally reviewed. However, the presenter notes that Spanish-language resources are often limited, some repositories contain broken or outdated links, and the available material may not match a teacher’s specific needs.

2. Search Tools and Platforms

The webinar distinguishes repositories from search tools that locate material across the web. It mentions:

• Google Scholar: A way to find academic and scientific publications, with filters such as date and relevance. Its results are generally text-based rather than multimedia.
• ERIC: A search resource for academic and educational materials, with filters including author, source, descriptor, and publication date.
• Redalyc and SciELO: Sources for scholarly journals and other written publications, especially in Spanish.
• YouTube Edu: A large source of educational videos and lessons in many subjects and languages. Because it is an open platform, teachers should check videos carefully before sharing them.
• Microsoft Academic: Presented as another academic search option, with much of its material in English or other languages.

The central trade-off is that search platforms can offer more results and variety than curated repositories, but teachers may need to do more work to verify quality, relevance, and suitability.

3. A Method for Evaluating Online Content

Drawing on an article by Pescador Mendoza (2017), the presenter outlines criteria for content curation—deciding whether an online resource is appropriate to share with students:

• Authorship authority: Identify who created the content and whether their background or institutional affiliation supports their credibility.
• Responsible publishing: Check where the material is hosted and who is responsible for the source.
• Curricular accuracy and currency: Review the content for correctness, academic validity, and relevance to the course.
• Educational purpose and context: Consider whether the material is genuinely educational and whether the rest of the website is appropriate. Distracting or unsuitable content elsewhere on the page can make a resource a poor choice.
• Navigability: Check that links work, pages and menus function properly, and the resource is easy to use.
• Readability: Ensure the material is clear and understandable.

The presenter illustrates these checks with a general Google search. A commercial website that prompts users for notifications and cookies, and whose author’s background does not inspire confidence, is treated as a poor candidate for classroom use. Academic search tools and established repositories can reduce some risks, but they do not eliminate the need to review resources.

4. Review the Complete Resource Before Sharing

Teachers should inspect the full material—not just its opening minutes—before assigning it. A video may become inaccurate, irrelevant, or unsuitable later on, or it may simply be too long for the learning goal. If only one section is useful, teachers can direct students to specific start and end times.

5. Creating Original Digital Resources

When suitable material cannot be found—because the topic is specialized, resources are unavailable in Spanish, or time is limited—teachers can create their own. The presenter identifies educational video as one relatively quick option and points to the Video Lab page at Tecnológico de Monterrey’s educational innovation portal for production advice. The webinar closes by noting that other free online tools for making teaching resources will be covered in a future presentation.

Speakers and Sources Featured

• Speaker: One webinar presenter, not identified by name in the subtitles.
• Sources and platforms mentioned: UNESCO; Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); ERIC (Education Resources Information Center); Khan Academy; Procomún; UNAM Online and UNAM educational repositories; the IPN learning portal; Coursera (the platform name is unclear in the auto-generated subtitles); Google Scholar; Redalyc; SciELO; YouTube Edu; Microsoft Academic; Google; and Tecnológico de Monterrey’s Video Lab.
• Publication cited: An article by Pescador Mendoza in the Mexican Journal of Distance Learning (2017).