Virtual students must have skills in time management, order, honesty, respect, responsibility and autonomy; skills that will continue to be strengthened during the academic training process.

In addition, there are also benefits such as the reduction of economic expenses for traveling and the possibility of taking advantage of commuting time, in the advancement of learning.

Since virtual programs have the possibility of having students from different cities and countries, cultural exchange is also encouraged and links are generated with people from different geographical locations.

Quality is an issue that combines different factors. For the institution, quality will always be a constant matter and the learning acquired by a campus-based student must be the same as that acquired by a virtual student. With the exception of the skills inherent in the process that depend on the technological mediation and the methodology of the teacher.

When a campus-based or online student receives a diploma, the modality of study in which the student completed their professional training (whether virtual or campus-based) is not included in the diploma, only the title conferred.

All the subjects and modules have a direct work time that corresponds to the dedication of the student in the reading of the contents, this is what is called «classes» in a campus-based program. Then, there is a time of independent work that corresponds to the appropriation of the contents or what we know as independent work, as well as the time dedicated to evaluation.

The times are programmed by experts in the curricular subject and are defined the same for the students of campus-based and virtual programs, however, the ability of study and learning on the part of all is different; it is for this reason that it can vary between less than the stipulated time or a little more.

In the virtual programs there are no classes as we know them in the campus-based program, however, there are synchronous activities, that is to say, that the students must be connected during a specific date and time. This is the case of tutorials with the teacher or meetings for teamwork that is usually done by a videoconference system.

The rest of the time must be organized by the student to devote himself to reading the contents, interacting with educational resources, resolving doubts, developing evaluations, among others.

Let’s remember that, depending on the amount of time programmed for each subject, it must be the dedication time of the student in the week.

Online students should have a desktop computer, laptop or tablet that allows them to navigate easily on the computer, they should always have Internet connection preferably by cable, wireless systems are a bit unstable for the connection. This situation may improve with the advancement of technology or according to the company providing the service you have.

Additionally, the student must have audio and microphone in order to interact in videoconferencing systems, record sounds, record videos or listen to digital educational resources that require it. Only in some specific cases they will be asked for a camera, this means that it is advisable to have it or that the student is willing to get it at the time it is required.

End-user requirements:

One of the main benefits of the virtual learning environment is that users have very few hardware and software requirements to access educational content.

Minimum specifications and requirements:

Computer:

• 1.5 GHz processor
• 512 MB RAM
• 50 MB available on hard disk
• 1024 x 768 screen resolution
• Speakers and microphone (headset recommended).

Plugins:

• Adobe® Flash Player

Operating systems:

Microsoft Windows® XP SP3 or higher
Mac OS X version 10.5.8 or higher
GNU Linux

Web browsers:

• Internet Explorer 7 or higher
• Apple Safari 5 or higher
• Mozilla Firefox 3 or higher
• Google Chrome 5 or higher

Internet connection:

An Internet connection of 2 MB or more is recommended.

For the institution, campus-based and online students will always be an essential part of the academic community and will have open doors. All online students who want to visit the facilities are welcome and can make use of all the services.

Everything is online, at no time there is a requirement to be present in the physical facilities of the institution. What we have are synchronous encounters, there we can explain, step by step, the use of the virtual learning environment, we also do the virtual induction to adapt to the modality.

Evaluations are of various types and are defined by each teacher, there may be some that are online questionnaires to answer questions for a given time, for example, it may be by May 10 from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. and you have 30 minutes to answer, or it may be from May 7 to 10 and also during all those hours you can come in and answer.

There are other activities that are jobs they develop and then send them through the virtual learning environment, they are also given some dates for it and during those dates they solve it and send it; it is there where the flexibility that they have of time is evident. The virtual learning environment can be accessed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

It is also possible that the teacher proposes presentations or similar, in that case they must connect to a videoconference system during an agreed date and time, these are called synchronous meetings. The teacher can propose individual or team work.