Gestión de calidad en la educación a distancia. Caso de una maestría de gerencia en salud

Introduction: Permanent quality monitoring constitutes an ethical requirement and a commitment of universities nowadays, as a guarantee for the training of professionals with high social sensitivity. Objective: To develop a quality management model in distance education, suitable for the master’s degree course in Health Management for Local Development, based on the needs detected by the students and experiences of good practices in this modality. Methods: An action research was carried out, with partial adaptation of the logical framework methodology, in a postgraduate course administered in the distance modality at Particular Technical University of Loja, Ecuador. The experience was developed through diagnosis of the academic and administrative weaknesses of the master's degree course, from which a quality management model was designed, implemented and evaluated, based on the needs detected by the students as well as the revision of quality standards and experiences. Likewise, with a confidence level of 95%, an accuracy of 3%, and a proportion of 5%, we calculated the sample size of 108 informants, randomly selected from a population of 230 students. Results: The results indicated that all the elements included in the model were useful to improve the quality of the program. However, it is necessary to continue strengthening the quality of tutorial attention, especially in terms of response times, the affectivity of messages, and the empathy demonstrated in the feedback processes. Conclusions: It is a priority to improve the administrative aspects involved in face-to-face activities, as well as to monitor continuously the elements of the model by expanding other aspects considered in educational theories and in national and international quality standards.