With the aim of encouraging the development of innovative proposals that qualitatively improve teaching and learning outcomes for Usach students, the Undergraduate Directorate of the Academic Vice-Rector's Office invites professors to apply each year for funding from the Teaching Innovation Projects (PID) competition.
In the 2025 call for proposals, 27 projects were selected, and their implementation began on August 18. They have been allocated 5 million pesos in funding and a two-year timeframe.
The Director of Undergraduate Studies, José Luis Llanos Ascencio, emphasizes that the PIDs, in addition to their pedagogical purposes, have additional relevance, as they meet the criteria and standards established by the National Accreditation Commission for higher education institutions.
“In fact, Criterion 4, Research, Teaching Innovation, and Improvement of the Educational Process, requires universities to develop research and/or innovation activities related to their teaching experience that have a positive impact on the educational process, both in terms of discipline and pedagogy, in accordance with their institutional project,” he points out.
Along these lines, he adds that since its creation in 1997 under the name Teaching Development Projects, “more than 500 initiatives have been awarded, which have had a significant impact on the work of Usach faculty and on the learning of the University's students.”
PID 2025
The 27 selected projects follow lines of innovation defined in the competition rules, focusing on Active Learning (12 proposals), Learning situated in practical activities complementary to the curriculum (5 proposals), Innovation in teaching in the terminal training cycle (4 proposals), Learning mediated by educational technology (3 proposals), Inclusive practices in teaching development (2 proposals), and Continuity projects (1 proposal).
To evaluate the applications, Evaluation Committees were formed, made up of peers belonging to a common disciplinary area and to our university, especially those who are members of the Teaching Innovation Circle of the Department of Educational Innovation (Inned).
The head of the Projects Area of the Undergraduate Directorate, Victoria González Escalona, highlights that in the 2025 call for proposals, "there is a notable concentration of projects awarded in the Active Learning innovation line, which aims to strengthen deep and meaningful learning among students, through active, participatory, and collaborative teaching methods and strategies that involve students in their own learning process."
The complete list of selected proposals and the line of innovation to which they belong can be found at the following link.
Voices of the PID
Professor Daniela Medina Núñez, from the Department of Physics, is the author of the project “The garden/greenhouse: a key point for our environmental awareness and a natural laboratory for strengthening scientific skills in the subject of Everyday Biology and the physical bases of living beings with a gender perspective and emotional focus.”
The academic decided to propose an initiative of this nature because it integrates indigenous, peasant, and local non-scientific knowledge and promotes its revaluation in the educational context. “Every time I have worked in the garden/greenhouse, there has been significant learning among the students, social and scientific skills have been developed, and a space for reflection has been created to respond to the environmental crisis we are experiencing,” she explains.
Professor Alejandro Iturra González is an academic at the School of Medicine and is responsible for the project “Expansion of inclusive anatomical laminaria: integration of auditory aspects and 3D design for learning in Health Sciences.” He explains that it was a specific situation in the Human Anatomy laboratories that motivated this project. "A blind kinesiology student joined the program. This presented us with the challenge of finding alternatives to the traditional method of teaching human anatomy,“ he says.
”We seek to ensure that all students, regardless of their visual abilities, have equal access to meaningful learning experiences. The combination of traditional tactile resources with 3D technologies not only modernizes teaching, but also lays the foundation for a more inclusive, accessible, and excellent medical education," he says.
For their part, Professor José Luis Cerva Cortés and Dr. Yamille Kessre Pizarro are the authors of the project “Simulation in interactive teaching using dynamic magnetic whiteboards to explain parasitic pathologies in doctor-patient interactions.”
“Students understand the content better when they can visualize and experience the clinical process, from pathophysiology to communication with the patient,” they argue. Dynamic magnetic whiteboards, they explain, combine visual, tactile, and informational elements to recreate real doctor-patient situations. “This not only reinforces meaningful learning of complex concepts, but also stimulates active participation and critical thinking,” they emphasize.
From an educational standpoint, they hope to have an impact on cognitive learning, the development of soft skills, and student motivation. “The project seeks to transform the classroom into a living space for interaction and knowledge building,” they emphasize.
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