Impact of free software on the learning of university students

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to determine the relationship that free software has in the learning process in students of the III cycle of the System Engineering and Computer Science degree at the University of Sciences and Humanities (UCH). It was developed under the descriptive modality with correlational design. The instruments used were two questionnaires made up of 20 items each, whose content validity was through five experts. The sample consisted of 27 students attending the III cycle of the Engineering and System career. It was determined with a level of significance p = 0.000 <0.05; and strong positive correlation r = 0.812 that Free Software influences student learning. It was concluded that free software and the learning process have a close and directly proportional relationship. For the students, the use of the computer in pleasant environments without being interrupted is significant; they use the attention strategy as an important aspect in the construction of meaningful learning for the use of free software. In addition, they carry out voluntary actions to take advantage of the resources provided by new technologies and control the recall and recovery processes through tactics such as recall exercises.