Lluis Vicent

Appropriateness of e-learning resources for the development of transversal skills in the new European Higher Education Area

The new European Higher Education Area (EHEA) implies not only a change in the content, length and name of the university degrees, but also a change in the pedagogical methodology. In this study, e-learning possibilities in the new scenario, where the main actor is the student, have been analyzed. Students must acquire specific knowledge of their profession, but also transversal skills for the work they develop in their jobs. So, interpersonal, teamwork, learning, communication or computing skills must be essential pieces of the instructional designs of the university degrees. The paper is focused on the analysis of the technological tools most frequently used in the learning management systems (LMSs), and of how these tools facilitate the development of the transversal skills mentioned in the Tuning Project. Tools are divided into contents tools (text, videos, simulators, e-labs, etc) and communication tools (forums, e-mail, virtual classrooms, etc.). Opinion polls to professors from engineering and humanities degrees from different Spanish universities, most of them with experience in distance education, have been used in the analysis

Master in Teacher Training: A real implementation of Active Learning

Teaching methods based on lectures often result in student passivity rather than pro-activity with the only goal of the student being to pass the final exam. Consequently, content retention is temporary and true learning is not achieved. Lack of student motivation can be solved by using Active Learning methodologies: serious games, Project-Based Learning (PBL), blended learning, etc. In addition, these methodologies enhance the development of the competences of students and provide a better evaluation of outcomes, provided adequate tools are used. However, apart from this, a more profound use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is needed to improve the effectiveness of learning and to create a learning system adapted to our current society. Learning Management Systems (LMS), social networks and blogs are indispensable for the efficient application of innovative learning methodologies. The Master in Teacher Training (MTT) provides an ideal case study as the most relevant features of Active Learning are present. The main contributions to this learning environment have been the incorporation of Active Learning methodologies (using real scenarios and project-based collaborative learning), an innovative method for assessing the Master and the impact of technology in learning. All of these have resulted in very positive results in relative to academic marks, surveys and entrepreneurship.

The teaching of electronics engineering: Guidelines for the design of training in and out of the classroom setting

The main goal of this study is the discussion on whether it is possible to substitute learning in a classroom environment for learning out of the classroom setting via computer based training systems (CBT). The two main ideas this study deals with are how a simulator can cover the teaching of practical aspects and the rules we can apply to non attended learning and instruction within a virtual laboratory. Specifically, the study focuses on the evaluation of practical electronic projects and the results achieved by students through the use of electronic simulators (we are working with the Pspice tool). Students carried out a full practical simulation and assembly procedure which provided us with a set of results that could be applied to the evaluation of practical virtual learning projects. With the analysis of the results, we are able to conclude that laboratory work can be substituted by practical work, which includes simulation processes.

Do Multimedia Contents increase the effectiveness of learning

In an engineering online degree, contents are usually given in a few different modalities: text, hypertext, video-clips and simulators or virtual laboratories. The aim of this study is to find out about their appropriateness for learning electrical engineering. In this paper, comparative studies on what kind of contents are better for the effective learning of some technical concepts are presented. The analysis is based on pilot tests in which students are divided into two statistically equivalent groups. Students in each group study with a different modality. Then the results from the two groups are compared. Besides these tests, students opinion polls are analyzed. The results obtained demonstrate how multimedia contents are more efficient than texts in the learning process of certain concepts. Nevertheless, problems or failures in the technology used have a very negative effect

Motivation assessment in engineering students using hybrid technologies for 3D visualization

This paper describes the integration of hybrid interfaces in the workflow using three-dimensional models, and presents the results of a preliminary study based on the profile and the student motivation. The study is conducted with first year Building Engineering degree students in order to use mobile technologies, augmented reality (AR) and digital sketching (DS) in different case studies. The resources developed combine traditional methods with interactive visualization of building and civil virtual models using mobile devices to show this type of content with the purpose of enhancing the students visualization and their spatial skills and motivation. We have used a mixed method research with quantitative evaluations, and personal qualitative assessment. The conclusions show us a positive student motivation to use this technology and the preliminary results show us an improvement of their academic results.

Engineering teaching methods using hybrid technologies based on the motivation and assessment of student's profiles

This paper describes the evolution and integration of hybrid interfaces in the visualization of three-dimensional models, and presents the results of a preliminary study based on the profile and the student motivation. The study is conducted with first and second year Building Engineering degree students in order to incorporate the augmented reality technology in different subjects and case studies. The resources developed combine traditional methods with interactive visualization of complex virtual models and mobile systems to present this type of content with the purpose of enhancing the students visualization and spatial analysis skills and their motivation. We have used a mixed method research with quantitative evaluations (using a pre and post-test), and personal qualitative assessment (using the Bipolar Laddering technic) to further strengthen the results. In general, the student motivation to use this technology at classroom is positive and the preliminary results show us an improvement of their academic results, a confirmation of the adequacy of the method.

Learning4Work. Designing a New Evaluation System Based on Scenario Centered Curriculum Methodology: The Pre-test

This paper aims to provide the theoretical framework and methodology for the definition of data collection tools designed to assess the effectiveness and impact of training envisaged by the LEARNING4WORK project. This project is based on the development of learning strategies within the framework of Vocation Training, in order to improve learning processes and make them more applicable in the real working world while minimizing the number of student drop-outs. Learning methods are re-conceptualized through the use of immersive worlds and role and project-orientated-learning. Scenario Centered Curriculum (SCC) was applied to promote the acquisition and development of international cooperation skills through the use of Information Communication Technologies (ICT) tools and systems. The paper focuses on the design process of the evaluation initial questionnaires (or Pre-test), starting from the theoretical framework established in the field of learning in formal, informal and non-formal educational contexts, applied to an innovative vision of education and training, centered on the learner’s future professional role.

Antenna theory education tool using an interactive and movie-based electronic book

A virtual tool (electronic book) for antenna theory and electromagnetic propagation is presented. A variety of radiation and electromagnetic problems ranging from linear antennas to arrays, radiation in time domain, microstrip antennas, smart antennas, and reflectors can be simulated. The material is useful both at undergraduate and graduate engineering courses. The education tool uses a user-friendly interface thanks to Mathcadreg software package which has been used to develop the electronic book. Moreover, navigation throughout the book follows the same rules used by internet users, therefore, no extra knowledge have to be introduced on how to use the present tool. Besides the user-friendly interface, the book also features visualization capabilities, 3D representations and videos, which play a significant role in teaching. The electronic book comes with several exercise sections having twofold objectives: first, students can check their own progress, and second, data from such exercises is provided to professor/mentor. This data is extremely useful to determine whether a given section can be considered completely understood or some extra emphasize needs to be done. All the material presented in the book can be complemented by extra peer review scientific papers given at the end of each section, most of them can be downloaded (obviously, depending on the contract between university and editorial). The book has been tested using objective data resulting in good acceptance.

Improving computational skills and curriculum of vocational training students. case study: technological behaviour of pharmacy students in a digital marketing course

Nowadays, the curricular needs of the students from Vocational Training have to adapt to all kinds of content in order to improve their future professional integration. In this sense, the technology knowledge is essential in any work environment. However, the introduction of these curricular features in certain non-technological academic areas may not be trivial and not guarantees its efficacy. The main aim of this article focuses in develop an implementation proposal and its analysis according to the profiles and motivation of the students, evaluating if this innovative proposal improves the satisfaction and the academic results of the students. It has been tested in two different groups of students in Pharmacy and Para-pharmacy technician, and Technician of assistance for people in situation of dependency, both trained in a course of Digital Marketing. As demonstrated in the results, the experience has been positive, and demonstrated how the approach can be adapted to non-technological profiles without many problems.

A method for designing automatic assessment systems based on teachers reasoning for evaluating subjective engineering student's competences

The convergence towards the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) entails the implementation of active teaching methodologies with the final goal of allowing students to develop new competences and skills. As a consequence, the degree of achievement of these competences has to be evaluated appropriately by means of the definition of formal and reliable evaluation processes. In this context, evaluating transversal/soft competences makes this goal specially challenging. This work introduces a method Based on Teachers Reasoning (BoTR) to allow the design of automatic assessment systems for the evaluation of transversal competences of students. BoTR defines a methodology that takes into account the subjective criteria applied by teachers when assessing the considered competence to build an automatic assessment system. After introducing BoTR, we apply this method to assess the teamwork competence for real students of engineering, describing the application of the three stages of the BoTR method in a real scenario.