In compliance with Law 1712 of March 6, 2014, "by means of which the Law of Transparency and Right of Access to Public Information is created," the following glossary is defined, which offers a conceptual framework of the academic terms used institutionally at the University of Cundinamarca.
THE ACADEMIC COUNCIL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CUNDINAMARCA, in the exercise of its legal and regulatory powers, issued AGREEMENT 000011 OF DECEMBER 20, 2018 "BY WHICH THE INSTITUTIONAL ACADEMIC GLOSSARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CUNDINAMARCA IS DEFINED".
The definition of this glossary has been a collective effort of the academic community, with analysis by the Council of Deans and the departments of the Vice-Rectorate for Academic Affairs and the Directorate of Institutional Planning.
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Institutional Academic Glossary of UCundinamarca
A
Accreditation: According to the National Accreditation Council (CNA), accreditation is “a voluntary mechanism for the permanent pursuit of the highest levels of quality by institutions that join the National Accreditation System.” In this way, accreditation is a recognition of excellence as the natural result of self-evaluation processes and the systematic execution of the improvement plans derived from them.
Agreement of wills: It is a type of agreement signed through alliances with public or private entities for the execution of academic internships or traineeships. Its purpose is to allow students to carry them out in entities that are legally constituted and can guarantee them spaces and activities appropriate to the functions established by the academic program. This document describes the duties, obligations, and rights of the parties and seeks to guarantee quality conditions that allow students to successfully complete their academic processes.
Experiential learning: From Koenderman's (2000) proposal, learning is viewed as a four-stage or four-phase cycle that describes the sequence of classroom activities starting from the introduction of a topic to its very conclusion through exposure, participation, internalization, and dissemination or transfer. It incorporates the objective of task-based learning. Experiential learning not only provides students with many opportunities, but also allows access to a wide variety of new skills related to specific task-based learning.
Higher Education Quality Assurance: “It is a set of institutions, mechanisms, and policies designed to ensure the quality of higher education institutions and their programs. One of its main objectives is for institutions to be accountable to society and the State regarding the educational service they provide, to furnish reliable information to users of the educational service, and to foster ongoing evaluation at the institutional level and of academic programs within the context of a culture of evaluation. Ministry of National Education (Decree 1280 of 2018).
Teaching Assignment: It is the number of teaching hours that each professor must dedicate to the various academic activities and responsibilities. The assignment of academic activities to specially contracted professors is carried out in accordance with the academic calendar, by academic periods, taking into account the total number of hours of dedication of each faculty member.
Flipped classroom: The definition by Olaizola (2014) is adopted, according to which “the flipped classroom is based on reversing the traditional structure of the face-to-face lecture through the use of information and communication technologies. In this strategy, before class, the teacher produces or selects digital material (video, audiovisual presentation, infographic, timeline, webpage, etc.), where certain course contents are presented and different types of activities are developed to verify comprehension of the topics. Then, the teacher distributes the material online to the students. In the face-to-face session, lecture time is freed up, and classroom dynamics are based on active student learning and peer collaboration. Instead of focusing on theoretical presentation, the teacher can clarify the most complex concepts, provide individual assistance to students with difficulties, and encourage student commitment to their own learning.”.
Class: The classroom is the expanded place where collaborative work takes place between students and the professor. It is based on the precept that the 21st-century classroom is obsolete; it can no longer remain a four-walled space where the professor talks and students listen, where content is transmitted, and where information and teaching take place. The educational process is more than talking and listening; it is a process of interaction, action, and transformation, in such a way that we speak of achieved learning within a learning field rather than in terms of subjects, courses, or topics; this implies research during the construction of knowledge. Thus, in this dynamic, the modern classroom is configured as a historically situated socio-cultural and professional laboratory. It constitutes one of the seven dimensions of the Transmodern Digital Educational Model of the University of Cundinamarca.
Self-assessment: Self-assessment and self-reflection regarding the quality carried out by the academic program and the institution in their ongoing academic work. Self-assessment corresponds to an institutional policy that continually promotes a culture of self-reflection within the academic community, in order to project and guarantee quality in the processes and procedures that enable the comprehensive training of students in the development of teaching, research, community outreach or social projection, and university welfare. At the same time, self-assessment is understood as the “permanent exercise of review, recognition, reflection, and intervention of an academic program with the objective of evaluating its substantive functions to achieve quality,” following the guidelines of the National Accreditation Council, in order to obtain accreditation recognition and the renewal of qualified status.
B
Wellness at the university: Set of socioeconomic, sports, and cultural programs that contribute to the comprehensive development of the student as a social being who has rights and duties, as part of their life project. Likewise, activities are promoted for faculty members, administrative staff, and, in general, the academic community.
C
Quality in Higher Education: The guidelines of the National Accreditation Council (CNA) are taken into account, with reference to the quality of Higher Education: “the synthesis of characteristics that make it possible to recognize a specific academic program or an institution of a certain type and to make a judgment about the relative distance between the way in which said service is provided in that institution or academic program and the optimum that corresponds to its nature.”
Learning field: It is a multidimensional space where students, professors, and workers interact in order to live experiences, generate knowledge, and act to transform reality.
Lack of Qualified Registration: Situation in which an institution lacks qualified registration, meaning the degrees it grants are not considered higher education academic degrees.
Science: It is a structured system of demonstrable and verifiable knowledge that is systematically presented and can be transmitted. It is the primary tool humans have to understand the world.
Faculty Board: It is the governing and management body of the faculty, responsible for formulating and ensuring compliance with the faculty's policy guidelines.
Consulting: The guidance provided to beneficiaries in the development of their skills, as well as the identification and resolution of problems through consulting, technical assistance, auditing, or oversight. This variable is characterized by generating a product and having a defined execution period; these types of activities include topics related to intellectual property, architecture, or heritage.
Academic Cooperation Agreements: These are all framework cooperation agreements with public or private entities that are signed for the execution of activities or projects related to training, science, technology and innovation, and university interaction; they are also established with the purpose of providing students and faculty with greater interaction with the environment.
Specific agreements: These are all agreements derived from a framework agreement, which specify the project title, objectives, location, duration, type and frequency of reports, budget, contributions and their source of resources, and the commitments of the parties regarding the implementation of the different activities defined in each project and/or activity.
Curricular Committee: The Curriculum Committee is a collegiate body that serves as an academic and curricular advisor to the respective Faculty Councils in the definition of policies, process coordination, monitoring, approval, reform, and evaluation of programs to ensure the proper development, management, and administration of the curriculum of the different academic programs and its interrelation with current scientific, technological, technical, artistic, and human developments.
Academic Credit: It is the “unit of measurement of academic work to express all the activities that are part of the curriculum.” It implies 48 hours of academic work, including hours with the professor and independent work (Decree 1280 of 2018, Ministry of National Education MEN).
Culture: They are the uses, customs, knowledge, beliefs, values, norms, behaviors, and patterns of conduct that define the spiritual, material, intellectual, affective, and moral imprint of the organization. It constitutes one of the seven dimensions of the Transmodern Digital Educational Model of the University of Cundinamarca.
D
Academic dedication: It is the time dedicated by professors to the development of activities in teaching, research, university social interaction, and academic administration during an academic period.
Master Document of the Academic Program: Understand the quality conditions determined in the Ministry of National Education (MEN) Decree 1280 of 2018, for the creation or expansion of a development location, agreement, and renewal of the qualified registration of an academic program.
E
Continuing education and courses: These are continuous training activities lasting more than 16 hours in the case of courses or workshops, and more than 90 hours in the case of diploma programs, seminars, congresses, and symposia. In the case of the University of Cundinamarca, they have the particularity of being those activities that generate income for the university through continuing education.
Education for life: University of Cundinamarca's approach to student education with the goal of their full realization and personal development.
Alumnus: Natural person who has successfully completed and passed the entire regulated curriculum for a program or career, but has not yet received the academic degree. (MEN, Labor Observatory).
Team: Group of expert professors who build, present, and support the process of creation or expansion of the development site and renewal of the qualified registry of undergraduate and graduate academic programs according to the guidelines of the MEN.
Feasibility Study: Socioeconomic study that evidences the viability for the offering and development of the program, requiring the presentation of the following aspects: diagnosis, market study, technical, administrative, financial projection, and action plan.
Cultural event: It refers to activities whose execution is not periodic, does not have a defined schedule, nor is it recurrent; they are cultural events such as concerts, exhibitions, theatrical plays, and activities such as dance, theater, and circus. In the case of the University of Cundinamarca, the department that manages this type of activity is the Directorate of University Welfare.
F
Family: It is the group of people with blood or emotional ties that constitute the basic core of society. It is the axis from which the greatest results in the formation of the human person are achieved; consequently, it is necessary to keep it in mind in this educational process. It constitutes one of the seven dimensions of the Transmodern Digital Educational Model of the University of Cundinamarca.
Integral education Type of education in which the different dimensions of the being are developed, including the following processes: intellectual, academic, affective, spiritual, ethical, social, cultural, and physical.
G
Graduate: Person who, having finished the academic program and met the legal requirements and those demanded by the respective higher education institution, receives the academic degree. (MEN, Labor Observatory).
Research Group: According to COLCIENCIAS, it is the “group of people who come together to conduct research on a given topic, formulate one or several problems of their interest, outline a long- or medium-term strategic plan to work on it and produce knowledge results on the subject in question. A group exists as long as it demonstrates the production of tangible and verifiable results, the fruit of projects and other research activities conveniently expressed in a duly formalized action plan (projects).”.
I
Innovation: According to the Oslo Manual, “product and process technology innovations comprise technologically new implemented products and processes, as well as significant technological improvements achieved in products and processes. A product and process technological innovation is considered to have been implemented if it has been introduced to the market (product innovation) or if it has been used within a production process (process innovation).”.
Institution: It is a social organization that promotes a formative order through its norms or rules, whose ultimate purpose is to educate for life, democratic values, civility, and freedom. It constitutes one of the seven dimensions of the Transmodern Digital Educational Model of the University of Cundinamarca.
University interaction: “It is a function that articulates with science, technology, and innovation, training-learning processes, and social interaction. Its purpose is the ongoing execution of exercises in the production, construction, and transfer of knowledge and culture that allow for integration, encounter, and dialogue with the community and society in the creation of solutions, contributions to national policies, and a contribution to the understanding and transformation of social, local, regional, and national reality. (Agreement 018 of May 2016, Institutional Educational Project)
Internationalization: According to Gacel-Ávila, “it refers to a process of comprehensive institutional transformation that aims to incorporate the international and intercultural dimension into the mission and substantive functions of higher education institutions. Internationalizing the university means rethinking it. Internationalization is a change in institutional culture.”.
Formal investigation: They are the research groups, scenarios, and products recognized by national and international regulatory and/or certifying entities that demonstrate a positive impact through the development of science, technology, and innovation, in the short, medium, and long term.
Investigation: “It refers to the intellectual and experimental process that, through a set of methods applied systematically, pursues the purpose of investigating a matter or topic, as well as increasing, expanding or developing its knowledge, whether it is of scientific, humanistic or technological interest.”.
L
Research Line: It is a defined field of knowledge, within the framework of which research programs and projects are developed, characterized by their coherence and academic relevance, seeking to generate significant contributions in the scientific, socio-economic, environmental, and political fields.
Location of development in the Qualified Registry: “In the application for qualified registration, the institution must indicate the municipality or municipalities where it will develop the program. In the event that the application for qualified registration includes two or more municipalities where the academic program will be developed, the proposal must make explicit the quality conditions of the program in each of these municipalities; which implies: professors, curricular management, educational resources, national and international interaction, and extension according to the nature and level of training of the program in order to obtain a single qualified registration. For doctoral and research master's programs, the research condition will additionally be evaluated. (Decree 1280 of 2018 MEN).
M
EDIT: Transmodern Digital Educational Model: It is the educational model that guides the actions of the University of Cundinamarca. It embodies the University's ideal of educating for life and the development of human beings. It is digital because it recognizes that today's world is entangled (where the material, the virtual, and the technological come together) and therefore requires complex thinking capable of decoding and recoding it.
Continuous improvement: It is the product of the execution of actions planned from self-evaluation, in order to strengthen and maintain the quality of the institution and its training programs in accordance with the requirements of higher education.
Educational model It is the explicit proposal that defines educational policy, its philosophy and structure, which projects the training of the professional human being that is desired to be formed.
Program modifications: It is the change in the quality conditions under which the qualified registration was granted to the program. According to Decree 1280 of 2018, “the Ministry of National Education must be informed through the information system that said entity makes available for this purpose. Such modification shall be incorporated into the respective qualified registration to keep it updated.”.
University Welfare Academic Monitor: He is the undergraduate student who, due to his academic merits or vocational aptitudes in artistic, sports, and cultural areas and his particular interest, has been selected to develop activities of socio-humanistic, cultural, sports, environmental training, and guidance in different dimensions of being.
Academic Teaching Monitor: He is an undergraduate student who, due to his academic merits and specific interest, has been selected to develop teaching activities involving the support of other students in a particular subject.
Academic extension monitor: he is the undergraduate student who, due to his academic merits and particular interest, has been selected to develop university extension activities within the framework of social outreach.
Academic Research Monitor: He is an undergraduate student who, due to his academic merits and particular interest, has been selected to carry out activities within the framework of a science, technology, and innovation project attached to a research line endorsed by a faculty.
Academic monitor of the administrative function: he is the undergraduate student who, due to their academic merits and particular interest, has been selected to develop activities related to their disciplinary training and that respond to the development of a project in an administrative area of the University.
Academic monitor undergraduate program student who, due to their academic merits and specific interest, has been selected to carry out activities related to the substantive functions of the University, such as: teaching, research, outreach, university welfare, and administrative function.
N
Nature: Nature is the set of living beings and inert matter from which the university community nourishes itself to achieve learning. It constitutes one of the seven dimensions of the Transmodern Digital Educational Model of the University of Cundinamarca.
Leveler: One-credit academic course, under the autonomous learning modality, that strengthens and reinforces the competencies and knowledge of students who enter with deficiencies according to the prior diagnosis.
P
Persona The person in themselves is the main driver of constant and permanent improvement. It constitutes one of the seven dimensions of the Transmodern Digital Educational Model of the University of Cundinamarca.
Contingency Plan: Based on the denial of the renewal of qualified registration and/or accreditation submitted by the university to the MEN, the University of Cundinamarca defines a document that establishes the strategies or actions of the academic program and the institution to guarantee students of the respective academic program the continuity of the initial cohorts and thus be able to complete the curriculum.
Improvement and Maintenance Plans: They are formal and structured action guides that are supported by the results of self-evaluation and therefore seek high quality. The fulfillment of improvement plans assures society and the State that quality characteristics have been developed, in accordance with the purposes and objectives of the institution and of higher education.
Professor: He is the professional who has been linked to the institution, in accordance with Law 30 of 1992, the General Statute, the Professor Statute, and other relevant regulations, and who is dedicated to developing activities of training and learning, science, technology, innovation, university interaction, academic administration, training, and professional development.
Academic program under agreement: These are academic programs offered and developed by the University in conjunction with other higher education institutions.
Academic program: Set of courses, seminars, and activities harmoniously integrated through the interrelation of professors, students, and instrumental resources, aimed at achieving training in certain areas of knowledge and obtaining an academic degree.
Research program: Articulated set of research projects aimed in the medium or long term at generating and building solutions to one or more problems.
Social Outreach: All those activities aimed at ensuring the satisfaction of needs and the well-being of the community in general, framed within a tangible reality that facilitates the reaffirmation of teachers' and students' knowledge through professional practice.
Extension project: They are the activities carried out by a higher education institution for the external community over a given period, with a defined characterization in their purpose, beneficiary, and duration; these types of projects serve as the basis for the methodology implemented through the Social Outreach procedure.
Research project: It is the basic unit of work, made up of a set of activities organized in a logical and coherent manner within a research proposal that involves human talent and other resources aimed at generating basic or applied knowledge.
R
Research Networks: It is the association of research groups, through short- and long-term agreements, for research cooperation.
Transition Regime: Instrument or mechanism by which the higher education institution guarantees the acquired rights of students enrolled while the academic program intended to be modified was in effect.
Qualified Registration: Administrative act issued by the MEN that certifies compliance with the institutional and academic program quality conditions for its offering and development. Evaluation process carried out in accordance with Article 2 of Law 1188 of 2008. (MEN Decree 1280 of 2018).
Renewal of Qualified Registration: Process that allows the renewal of the validity of the qualified registration of an academic program and the obtaining of the recognition of quality conditions, through the administrative act issued by the Ministry of National Education (MEN-resolution), in order to continue the academic offering.
Expected Learning Outcomes (ELOs): The expected learning outcomes are statements that describe what the student is expected to do and demonstrate during and after their participation in the learning field.
S
Field trips: Set of academic activities developed in one or more locations, where students apply methods and techniques to put into practice the knowledge acquired in the classroom. Preferably, they will articulate two or more thematic cores, have a specific activity plan describing the expected results and method of evaluation, and therefore, have the guidance and supervision of one or more professors.
Graduate tracking: Management tool that monitors the professional and personal performance of the graduate, and allows to identify, know their experiences and measure their impact in the social, labor and business market where they intervene. (MEN, Labor Observatory).
Research Incubators: They are groups formed by students under the guidance of research professors. Their objective is to initiate students in the research and knowledge production process. For the University of Cundinamarca, research seedbeds are the fundamental core of formative research, constituting a learning and production community for students, and are articulated with the research lines of the faculties and/or the University.
Services: They are the services that Higher Education Institutions provide to the community, such as, for example: legal aid clinic, dental clinic, etc.
Quality Assurance System: It is a set of internal regulations established by the governing bodies of the University of Cundinamarca in coherence with the regulations of the Ministry of National Education (MEN), in order to ensure the quality of institutional conditions and academic programs in the academic offering process.
The University of Cundinamarca system is made up of four components, called Models: Accreditation (self-assessment of academic programs), Planning, Management (21st-century digital operations), and Internal Control. For the execution and monitoring process, the Quality Assurance Committee (SAC) is organized.
Science, Technology and Innovation System: It is the “set of complex and integrated actions based on knowledge built from research processes that aim to understand and solve specific problems through renewal and invention in order to improve the quality of life and contribute to the well-being of the academic community, localities, regions, the country, and the world.”
National Accreditation System Law 30 of 1992, the regulation governing higher education in Colombia, establishes the National Accreditation System. This system is a response to the need to strengthen the quality of higher education and the purpose of publicly recognizing the achievement of high levels of quality, thus seeking to preserve the legitimate rights that users of the higher education system and society in general have in this matter.
T
Technology: For Van Wyk (2004), “technology is the means by which scientific knowledge is transferred to the solution of specific problems in an effective manner. Hence, the tendency to value sciences in terms of what they contribute to society. Technology is creating competencies and is expressed in technological entities that consist of devices, procedures, and skills. It can also be defined as “the system of knowledge and information derived from research, experimentation, or experience that, combined with its own production, marketing, and management methods, makes it possible to create a reproducible form or generate new or improved products, processes, or services” (Benavides, 1998).
Translocality: Characteristic of the current era in which the global and the local are intertwined. At the University of Cundinamarca, translocality is assumed as the need to transcend the local without losing identity, contributing to the global from one's own roots.
Transmodernity: A conception that recognizes the crisis of the paradigm of modernity and advocates for the construction of a new world model that overcomes modern contradictions. Transmodernity proposes going beyond modernity, yet without failing to recognize its virtues and without falling into postmodernism or nihilism.
V
Academic visits: Assistance to institutions or organizations in accordance with the specificities of the academic program: profiles and competencies defined with the purpose of understanding the activities they perform, which are of interest for professional training.
Volunteering: Law 720 of 2001 defines it as the “activity of any natural person who freely and responsibly, without receiving labor-related remuneration, offers time, work, and talent for the construction of the common good, individually or collectively, in public or private organizations or outside of them.”.
MEDIT
CAC: Cultural Fields of Learning
CADIS: Disciplinary Learning Field
CAI: Institutional Learning Field
CEAA: Agro-environmental Study Centers
CGCA: Knowledge and Learning Management Center
CIT: Technological Innovation Center
CITGO: Center for Innovation, Technology and Organizational Management
CMA: Multidimensional Learning Field
CROFB: Orlando Fals Borda Regional Center
CTIeI: Science Technology Innovation and Research
CTO: Full-Time Contract
EFAD Teacher Training and Learning School
EFR: Family-Responsibly Managed Company
GCA Knowledge and Learning Manager
ISU: University Social Interaction
LIS: Social Innovation Laboratory
MCA: Learning Field Methodology
EDIT: Transmodern Digital Educational Model
MEN: Ministry of National Education
PAD: Digital Learning Plan
PEI: Institutional Educational Project
REA: Expected Learning Outcomes
RSU: University Social Responsibility
CDEI: Digital Center for Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Business Management
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