Ana Isabel Vázquez-Martínez

Production and evaluation of a Personal Learning Environment for faculty training: analysis of an experience / Producción y evaluación de un Entorno Personal de Aprendizaje para la formación universitaria: análisis de una experiencia

Abstract The creation of a Personal Learning Environment (PLE) process. The research project Dipro 2.0 had different objectives, one of which was the creation of a learning environment using Web 2.0 architecture. This was done in three stages: the design of a prototype, an analysis by members of the research team and its evaluation by experts and students. The first environment is a PLE and the second environment contains the learning materials distributed in 14 units. Fifty-seven educational technology experts from different Latin American countries participated in the evaluation of both environments; they were selected from the criterion of expert competence and 284 students from different Spanish universities. The instrument used was created ad hoc, and results confirmed that both environments are positively valued; it is recommended for teacher training.

Autoevaluación de Conocimientos Previos y Rendimiento según Estilos de Aprendizaje en un Grado Universitario de Edificación

The fundamental objective of this work was to identify the learning styles of first-year students in the degree of Building Construction at the University of Seville in Spain. The existent relationship between student’s self-assessment of their own knowledge in four basic courses and their scores, the influence of their learning style on their performance, and whether or not there was a relationship between the scores obtained in related first-year courses were studied. To this end, a cross-sectional methodological design, ex post-facto was used, utilizing correlational and descriptive methods. The Honey-Alonso Learning Styles Questionnaire (CHAEA), a demographic and self-evaluation questionnaire was provided, and the scores analyzed. Predominance of the reflective style and a lack of correlation between self-assessment and scores, except for Mathematics were observed. It was also found that student’s behavior according to the styles was variable depending on the different courses. This indicates that, to improve academic performance, the development of in-class strategies that include all learning styles is necessary.