Objetos digitales de aprendizaje en entornos virtuales para fomentar la escritura: percepciones de los estudiantes

Information and communication technologies have an elemental place in the field of education by offering students an attractive way for the appropriation of knowledge of a foreign language. An example of this is the digital learning objects (LOs) that provide learning with characteristics different from the traditional class. This article aims to know the perceptions of university-level students regarding the use of LOs in a virtual environment to promote written competence in English as a foreign language. A quantitative descriptive approach took place to characterize these perceptions, as well as a Likert-type questionnaire with four response categories to collect data and identify students’ opinions. As a result, we obtain an accurate description of the benefits of using the instructional model such as active learning, autonomous writing through writing strategies and digital tools for correction and editing, identification of positive changes in the students’ performance with motivational features, and incorporation of writing in different genres. Finally, the study provides a theoretical contribution regarding the use of digital tools on the Moodle platform to develop written competence.