There will be four diploma courses under the e-learning and b-learnig modality that will be carried out for the first time in this study house. Its mission is to strengthen and diversify the academic offering of the ULS.

La University of La Serenathrough Digital Campus, has worked on the implementation of four diplomas in the e-learning modality y b-learning. This training modality is being carried out for the first time in this university and its mission is to strengthen and diversify the academic offering of the University. This process already has its first registrations and will officially begin operating this April 15 with its first edition.

The director of Digital Campus, MTI. Humberto Farías pointed out that “the graduates come to complete a project that the University undertook in order to position itself as a national benchmark in the field of distance education. The first stage of this was to build one of the most modern and complete platforms in the country in terms of user experience, in addition to the equipment necessary to create training programs in accordance with the training needs of the community, whether they are our alumni, like other people in the region and the country. This first version of the diploma courses opens the way in which the University of La Serena will systematically increase its offer of programs in this modality.”

The diplomas that will be taught in this first version are: Diploma in Digital Marketing, Diploma in Teaching for Vocational Technical Training, Diploma in University Education for Health Sciences and Diploma in Social Sciences.  

The Director of the Diploma in Digital Marketing, Mg. Karina Núñez, maintained that "currently studying remotely helps us to complement both the tasks that professionals have in their jobs and to be able to make it compatible with family work, time is becoming increasingly scarce to be able to move from a University or a city to other. That is why the University of La Serena, by implementing these postgraduate degrees, supports the continuous training of our alumni and professionals from both the region and the country to strengthen professional skills.”

Meanwhile, the professor of the Diploma in Teaching for Vocational Technical Training, Carlos Santander, emphasizes the advantages of online education. "The student learns to take responsibility for his or her training on his or her own initiative, there is exhaustive monitoring of the training process and there are no travel difficulties or geographical barriers."

The official launch of the first version of these diploma courses will take place in the Multipurpose Room of the CETEFI building, on Friday, April 12 at 16:00 p.m. For more information visit the page: continuity.userena.digital.

Written by Emilio Castro, ULS Digital Campus

Within the framework of the astrotourism meeting “Let's live the eclipse”, the official launch of Univrso will be held, an initiative that seeks to innovate in astronomical tourism by enhancing the riches and quality of the skies of the Estrella Region.

Free massive online courses and a virtual reality mobile application that seek to give a new perspective to the vision of astrotourism for the community in general. This is what is contemplated in the project of the University of La Serena called “Virtual Reality to reinvent Astrotourism”, from the Innovation Fund for Competitiveness (FIC-R) - Coquimbo Region.

Today this project executed by Campus Digital ULS, gives its first light with the launch of UNIVRSO, a new way of approaching astrotourism, with its website Universo.userena.digital, its four massive, open and free online courses (MOOC) and its virtual reality mobile application, which provides technology to an area that has sought to enhance the richness and quality of the skies of the Estrella Region for tourism.

The MTI. Humberto Farías, director of the project, highlights the impact of this initiative in the region and the importance of promoting the local tourist-astronomic aspect "The FIC was conceived in conjunction with various actors in the region in order to aim that based on A community informed and formed through our distance courses will take value from the richness of its sky and be its first defender. Likewise, seek that citizens join the tourism production chain, so that they can convey to tourists that there is another type of tourist offer in the region that is not only beaches, but that there are also alternatives in the valleys. The idea is to help enrich and diversify the astrotourism offer based on a virtual reality application that Campus Digital is also developing. These two things imply a strong component of innovation in the tourist services that the region offers.”

In addition, the professional extends the invitation to participate in the activity that includes an open talk by Guatemalan photographer Iván Castro. “At the launch of this project, the community will observe its progress, since they will learn about the first products that will be available, which would be the first massive courses and also a preview of what the virtual reality application is. In addition, you will be able to appreciate the talk of a speaker who will be able to give us more guidelines on how to live and enjoy the approaching eclipse.”

The appointment is this Tuesday, April 9, from 14:30 p.m., at the Gabriela Mistral Regional Library. Registrations can be made through the page http://univrso.userena.digital/.

Written by Emilio Castro, ULS Digital Campus

This is what the academic from the University of La Serena, Dr. Paola Salas, points out within the framework of World Health Day.

This April 7 marks World Health Day, whose motto this year is “universal health coverage.” The idea comes from 10 years ago when the World Health Organization (WHO) diagnoses that in many countries there were no facilities for equal access to health by all communities.

In this regard, we spoke with the Coordinator of the new Center for Research and Technological Transfer of Health Sciences of the Faculty of Health Sciences. University of La Serena and academic Paola Salas, Doctor in Public Health. She emphasizes that the underlying idea of ​​this call is to promote “that all people can have the care they need, whenever they need it, within their communities and all equally. Many people have health but not within their communities and the idea of ​​universal coverage is that health reaches where the person needs it, in their community and territory and on the days when they need it," says the professional, who adds that this requires will, territorial decisions and public policies.

Progress is being made in this area in countries in all regions of the world. The WHO points out that there are still millions of people who still have no access to health care. And many people, also numbering in the millions, are forced to choose between health care and other everyday expenses, such as food, clothing, or even shelter.

But comparing the Chilean reality with that of other countries in the world, the expert tells us that "in Chile we have been making progress in increasing access, a clear example is the care of health teams in rural posts and rural medical stations, although not with the periodicity that one would like, but there is an approach at least to this thought of the WHO (World Health Organization) of universal coverage, this for example does not exist in other Latin American countries, for example in Mexico, and to a lesser extent in African countries.”

The academic comments that what we have advanced as a country towards universal health coverage is the AUGE Program (Universal Access to Explicit Guarantees). The AUGE constitutes a set of benefits guaranteed by Law for people affiliated with FONASA and ISAPRES in 80 pathologies, some of which allow access to diagnosis, treatment and sometimes follow-up.

Another example of the benefits of universal health coverage in our country is social security, which is materialized, for example, in the free distribution of milk to children under two years of age and which is maintained to this day, even others have been incorporated. groups such as the elderly in the national complementary feeding program. Social security also includes access to vaccines as a clear example of what universal coverage means in Chile and which also goes in line with universal coverage between countries, helping prevent preventable diseases from flourishing, such as Measles or the Tuberculosis. Thus, the eradication of smallpox (1950), poliomyelitis (1975) and elimination of measles (1992) in Chile has been achieved. The important thing is the fact that vaccines are free for the entire population. "If I am FONASA or Isapre, I do not have to buy the vaccines from the National Immunization Program, the State gives them to me for free, I only have to go to the public and private vaccination centers in agreement with the Ministerial Secretaries of Health of each region," he says. .

Finally, the academic emphasizes that the idea of ​​these global celebrations is to call the community, health teams, students and teachers in the health area to reflect on the importance of their work to facilitate universal health coverage. “At the University of La Serena, we want our health students to be committed to communities, especially the most remote ones. It is we who have to go to the communities, since we are servants of the universal policies of the WHO,” she indicates. And he adds that "in this line, the main work and investment has to be to facilitate access to public health goods, to educate on matters of prevention of chronic diseases, to promote healthy eating and physical activity so that health spending of citizens becomes less every day, with better access and with this contribute to raising the quality of life of the population."

Written by Dr. Paola Salas and Dr. Marcela Gatica, Faculty of Sciences

Sixth year Dentistry students are participating in the intensive induction to face the extramural boarding school.

With the firm intention that improvements must always go hand in hand with all the relevant actors that influence the training of professionals, the Dentistry career at the University of La Serena is carrying out the induction into internship of the students who are studying the eleventh level.

The modules, which are divided into different topics and which have been addressed by different professionals in the area, according to what the work field requires, prepare students to face real situations within what is primary public care, one of the most important steps in the training of future dentists.

The career, although it covers several types of clinics and internships internally, the most decisive and representative is that of the extramural internship, which positions them in a real work scenario, with patients - some critical - in the public health sector, and with the supervision of the peer dentists who work in the Family Health Centers of the communes of Coquimbo and La Serena.

“In our graduation profile it is stated that we train comprehensive dentists and that is what we have been fulfilling, and we have realized that they have developed in a good way. This week prepares them to face activities that they will develop during the year, they are reinforced with knowledge that they already have but that they must handle with great accuracy and application, with approaches to cases that could occur, where methodological, technical dental, and pharmacological concepts are reviewed. and medical emergencies,” said the academic and person in charge of clinical fields of teaching care relations and the care internship for students in their final year of the degree, Paula Arriagada.

The professional assured that all the activities carried out in the program are in accordance with the Strategic Development Plan that the institution has declared, and for this reason, she assures that they have worked a lot on the accreditation process of the program and are constantly self-assessment, so each of the activities carried out contributes to the competencies they want to develop and the graduation profile that has been declared to be achieved in the students.

“In general, the program has very good relationships with colleagues who work in the public care system, both in primary and secondary. We have been very well evaluated when we have gone out into the field and carried out actions that have been a contribution to the health network,” said the academic.

The specialist also assured that “it is a bar that we have high and we want to continue maintaining it and always raising it, it is really necessary to make a difference because there are many dentists in the country; Therefore, we have to give the imprint of a state public university and of students trained with that profile to be able to work in the public system.”

Written by Patricia Castro, DEIP

By Dr. Ing. Mauricio Godoy Seura, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering

The Faculty of Engineering of the University of La Serena (FIULS) once again shows its pleasure and joy for the new students who are joining the educational community. Welcome everyone to the University of La Serena.

Under this context, I call on the students of the FIULS to carry out and develop activities to welcome the new “papayas and papayas” with the most determined respect for the rights of all, and above all taking care of the physical integrity and psychological of the students who are welcomed into the university community. The so-called “Mechoneo” must be transformed into activities that value humanity above all and its entry into an institution that works to build a better society. Building a better world with better people involves respect and empathy for others.

It is also necessary to mention that in order to ensure the rights of all our students, the University has the mechanisms defined in the document called Rights and Duties of Students of the University of La Serena to ensure and protect rights and duties. , but also sanction behaviors that threaten them. It is neither tolerable nor acceptable that people enjoy denigrating their fellow human beings.

On the other hand, the FIULS congratulates all the students and careers that have already carried out activities called “Positive Mechoneo”, such as the Architecture career, who has carried out a Cleaning Day in the Wetland at the mouth of the Elqui River.

Finally, it is important to emphasize to the entire Faculty of Engineering community the importance of the beginning of this new academic year and, above all, the incorporation of camaraderie activities around respect for people and the territory, as well as promote self-care and care for the environment.

With the purpose of strengthening academic performance, FACSE developed the Seminar - Workshop: How to write articles to publish in high-impact academic journals?, taught by Dr. José Rojas-Méndez.

In a joint effort between the Vice-rector for Research and Postgraduate Studies and the Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences of the ULS, the course on writing high-impact scientific articles was carried out, the objective of which was to provide the participating academics with the necessary tools to develop research articles publishable in specialized journals, in order to enhance research and the respective publications within the institution.

The seminar led by Dr. José Rojas-Méndez, professor of International Business and Marketing at Sprott School of Business, Carleton University, Canada, and editor of magazines in the business area, consisted of 16 hours of work, in which academics from all areas of the Faculty participated jointly. “The skills for writing articles are generally transversal, therefore we can bring together people from different disciplines in a workshop like this because each person advances in the seminar and works on their own article,” said Dr. Rojas-Méndez.

In this way, the seminar ended on Saturday, March 23 in person, since from now on the academics have two months to work on their articles, consult Dr. Rojas-Méndez with their doubts and, at the end of this time, two more months to prove that the article written by them was sent to a magazine with the aim of being published.

The effort to promote research is linked to the 2019 Performance Agreement held by the Faculty, to which the Dean, Dr. Luperfina Rojas, stated that “from now on all FACSE academics have to publish an article and this course, which has been a success, is the first step to continue bringing in other academics who stand out in the area of ​​publishing, to be able to continue motivating and developing a critical mass within the Faculty that allows us to enhance research, develop research programs postgraduate, master's and doctorates."

Likewise, the Director of Postgraduate and Postgraduate Studies, Dr. Cristian Ibáñez, highlighted the importance of the initiative and the predominant role that this type of instances generate in enhancing the research and professional quality of the academics on the campus. “Everything that has to do with improving the level of impact of what the University does in the external environment is vital in institutional development. Today the idea of ​​having a doctoral program is no longer conceivable without students publishing the research they are doing, so our University requires that in order to obtain that degree the student must have one article published and another sent at the time of taking their exam. degree.”

Thus, after four months the Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences will have new specialized publications in the various areas and disciplines of the academics that comprise it.

Written by Paula Godoy, ULS journalist