Abstract: This paper is the result of the qualitative research developed by Costa Rica’s Universidad Estatal a Distancia (UNED) during 2018’s second semester. It had the participation of nine of the university’s experts in virtual learning. The main purpose was to define the components of teachers’ digital competence considering UNED’s context according to the virtual education expert’s opinion. All in all, 22 achievement indicators were obtained from a focus group. Those indicators describe the UNED’s teaching staff desirable skills to perform satisfactorily in virtual learning environments during the implementation phase of an online course. The final recommendation is to use the list of indicators to detect training needs in the institution’s teaching staff, as well as to evaluate their performance.

Keywords: teacher skills; digital competence; teacher’s digital competence; distance learning; virtual education; online learning