During the COVID-19 pandemic, most Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) across the globe moved towards “emergency online education”, experiencing a metamorphosis that advanced their capacities and competencies as never before. Teaching and Learning Centers (TLCs), the internal units that promote sustainable transformations, can play a key role in making this metamorphosis last. Existing models for TLCs have defined the competencies that they could help develop, focusing on teachers’, students’, and managers’ development, but have mislead aspects such as leadership, organizational processes, and infrastructures. This paper evaluates the PROF-XXI framework, which offers a holistic perspective on the competencies that TLCs should develop for supporting deep and sustainable transformations of HEIs. The framework was evaluated with 83 participants from four Latin American institutions and used for analyzing the transformation of their teaching and learning practices during the pandemic lockdown. The result of the analysis shows that the PROF-XXI framework was useful for identifying the teaching and learning competencies addressed by the institutions, their deficiencies, and their strategic changes. Specifically, this study shows that most institutions counted with training plans for teachers before this period, mainly in the competencies of digital technologies and pedagogical quality, but that other initiatives were created to reinforce them, including students’ support actions.

Studies show that feedback greatly improves student learning outcomes, but achieving this level of personalization at scale is a complex task, especially in the diverse and open environment of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). This research provides a novel method for using cutting-edge artificial intelligence technology to enhance the feedback mechanism in MOOCs. The main goal of this research is to leverage AI’s capabilities to automate and refine the MOOC feedback process, with special emphasis on courses that allow students to learn at their own pace. The combination of LangChain—a cutting-edge framework specifically designed for applications that use language models—with the OpenAI API forms the basis of this work. This integration creates dynamic, scalable, and intelligent environments that can provide students with individualized, insightful feedback. A well-organized assessment rubric directs the feedback system, ensuring that the responses are both tailored to each learner’s unique path and aligned with academic standards and objectives. This initiative uses Generative AI to enhance MOOCs, making them more engaging, responsive, and successful for a diverse, international student body. Beyond mere automation, this technology has the potential to transform fundamentally how learning is supported in digital environments and how feedback is delivered. The initial results demonstrate increased learner satisfaction and progress, thereby validating the effectiveness of personalized feedback powered by AI.

The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into the field of education is an unprecedented trend with the potential to revolutionize teaching approaches and significantly improve the overall learning experience. This workshop offers an opportunity for a strategic implementation of generative artificial intelligence in higher education, demonstrating its capacity to substantially enhance the creation and customization of digital educational materials. It is essential for educators to possess the capacity to utilize generative artificial intelligence tools, specifically when it comes to developing prompts for Large Language Models (LLMs). In addition to fostering a more interactive learning environment, these LLMs are driving the transition to educational systems that are more autonomous and adaptable. An in-depth exploration of the pragmatic and ethical aspects of generative AI implementation is undertaken to equip educators with the necessary knowledge and skills to employ AI in a responsible manner, thereby cultivating an engaging and equitable learning environment. This workshop was prepared based on successful previous experiences in different conferences and meetings in Spain, Portugal, Germany, México, Guatemala, Colombia, and USA.

PROF-XXI is a European-funded project whose aim is the creation of Teaching and Learning Centers (TLCs) for Latin American Higher Institutions in an effort to promote the development of competences for university professors and foster teaching innovation in onsite, but also in online and hybrid education. PROF-XXI includes a partnership of seven higher education institutions, three from European countries (Spain, France, and Portugal), and four from Latin American countries (two from Guatemala, and two from Colombia). This article presents the main results of the first part of the project, including the diagnosis of institutional practices, the state of the art of TLCs around the world, the framework on 21^st century professors in Latin America, and the PROF-XXI framework.