The H-mediator in virtual and distance education: a reflection from the unadist heutagogical model and the competencies for self-determined learning

Abstract

Higher education in virtual and distance learning modalities has shifted from a content-driven approach to models that prioritize autonomy, metacognition, and self-directed learning. In this context, the National Open and Distance University (UNAD) focuses its pedagogical model by progressively incorporating the principles of heutagogy, understood as the study of self-determined learning. This reflective article analyzes the convergence between the heutagogical approach and the pedagogical mediation of the UNAD H-mediator, identifying the competencies that teachers must develop to support autonomous, critical, and contextualized learning processes. Based on a literature review and the author's experience as a tutor at the institution, it is argued that effective virtual mediation requires a transdisciplinary, emotionally intelligent, digitally competent, and epistemologically flexible teaching profile. The article also discusses the institutional, technological, and training challenges that limit or enhance this transformation and proposes lines of action to strengthen the ongoing professional development of mediators in virtual environments.