The assessment of teaching quality in blended learning modalities has become a key element in the context of higher education. However, current evaluation systems present certain limitations. Behavioral scales overcome many of these limitations, offering an alternative for this task. This study describes the process of constructing an assessment instrument with behavioral scales to evaluate university teachers in blended learning modalities, following the BARS (Behavioral Anchored Rating Scales) methodology. The design process included interviews and surveys involving a total of 477 students, as well as a panel of professors who were experts in this teaching modality. The behavioral scales in the final instrument highlight the importance of certain particularly significant teaching-related aspects of blended learning models, namely: teacher-student communication; learning resources; course design; and the teacher’s technical competencies. The authors conclude that the final instrument provides clear and unambiguous feedback, enables the teacher to take specific corrective measures, and reinforces the formative purpose of evaluation in these modalities.

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This article addresses the design and validation of an updated questionnaire that makes it possible to understand the use patterns and attitudes of university youth on social networks. The authors utilized a panel of 20 judges who were social media experts and a sample of 640 university students. The exploratory factor analysis (EFA) explained 66.523% of the total variance. The confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), carried out to verify the dimensional structure of the instrument, reflected the appropriate parameters. The reliability study showed a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.864. These data corroborated the development of a robust and reliable questionnaire. The resulting instrument did not contain items alluding to specific social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or LinkedIn), but rather students’ usage patterns of them. The exclusion of items that referred to particular social networks during the research demonstrated a convergence in behavior on social media regardless of the nuances of each platform. This fact suggested that the platform was of secondary importance in the context of a new paradigm in which the type of use (viewing, posting, participating, or interacting) took precedence over the name of the network itself.

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This paper investigates spreading behavior of branded content, within an online brand community. A total of 41.392 pieces of content were gathered to analyze the activity of 45 Twitter brands, in the Spanish food industry, during one-year period. The study uses an Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) to reveal the structure of that spreading behavior, addressing two key constructs: propagation and sharing. In addition, multiple regression analysis is conducted to identity the influence of the independent variables controlled by the company, which predict that spreading action on the proposed structural model. Findings indicate the significant effect of variables such as: mentions made by the brand, posting time or volume of tweets, in predicting audience spreading behavior. Controversially, results suggest that brand use of the retweet function generates a negative influence on audience response. The research also innovates exploring the impact of sentiment expressions used by the brand on audience spreading behavior.

El empleo de cuestionarios web en los procesos de valoración docente presenta importantes ventajas, entre las que destacan la reducción de costes de gestión, la flexibilidad para abordar la evaluación en remoto o la sencilla personalización del formulario para adaptarlo a las necesidades de diferentes materias. No obstante, aunque el uso de cuestionarios web presenta beneficios sustanciales, estos no están exentos de inconvenientes. El presente trabajo analiza los resultados obtenidos con la administración de cuestionarios web a través de dos sistemas diferentes en una muestra de estudiantes universitarios. Por un lado, se emplea un sistema de administración de cuestionarios mediante servicios de mensajería SMS y, por otro, se administran los cuestionarios a través del Portal de Servicios del alumno. La administración de cuestionarios web, a través de servicios de mensajería SMS, permite salvar algunos de los escollos planteados por los sistemas de administración convencionales, posibilitando mejoras en tres planos: a) tasas de participación, b) inversión de tiempo al completar el cuestionario, c) plazos de recogida de datos. El sistema de administración descrito incrementa las tasas de participación; contribuye a recabar valoraciones más ajustadas al desempeño real del docente gracias al aumento de la inversión en tiempo realizada por el alumno; y posibilita una rápida implementación del fin formativo de la evaluación gracias a una notable reducción en los plazos de recogida de datos. Asimismo, los resultados subrayan la buena predisposición del estudiante universitario a la hora de abordar las valoraciones del profesorado mediante dispositivos móviles o Smartphones.

The objective of this work is to detect the variables that allow organizations to manage their social network services efficiently. The study, applying machine learning algorithms and multiple linear regressions, reveals which aspects of published content increase the recognition of publications through retweets and favorites. The authors examine (I) the characteristics of the content (publication volumes, publication components, and publication moments) and (II) the message of the content (publication topics). The research considers 21,771 publications and thirty-nine variables. The results show that the recognition obtained through retweets and favorites is conditioned both by the characteristics of the content and by the message of the content. The recognition through retweets improves when the organization uses links, hashtags, and topics related to gender equality, whereas the recognition through favorites increases when the organization uses original tweets, publications between 8:00 and 10:00 a.m. and, again, gender equality related topics. The findings of this research provide new knowledge about trends and patterns of use in social media, providing academics and professionals with the necessary guidelines to efficiently manage these technologies in the organizational field.

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