Evaluating Technological Acceptance of Virtual Learning Environments (VLE) in an Emergency Remote Situation

The digital acceleration that took place in the middle of COVID-19 pandemic made the universities implement strategies to face the challenges brought about by the irruption of non-face-to-face education. In Guatemala, the universities opted for online, virtual, and distance learning methodologies where in a short time they organized themselves to build a learning system to solve the emergency, which in the beginning was considered to last a few weeks; however, the digital learning ecosystems were consolidated, as time went by, and to the extent that all agents of the educational community were involved in the process. The higher education institutions implemented strategies to continue providing instruction, and the academic year ended with a full distance education system, using virtual educational platforms and networked communities to optimize time and resources that are transforming university management worldwide. This work presents a theoretical model that assessed teachers' technological acceptance of virtual learning environments (VLE) in an emergency remote situation. The study was prepared from the perspective of 345 teachers from different faculties in a higher education institution. The work is complemented with recommendations and best practices from the experience with a special focus on the use of learning analytics techniques in virtual engineering education.