Advances in E-learning-Experiences and Methodologies

Evaluation and Effective Learning
prior intentions and expectations the students
had with regard to the subject and the active
practical work. The purpose of the final survey
was to ascertain whether the level of interest in
the subject had been maintained until it had been
completed, whether students considered it important
for their education, the degree of difficulty
of the subject, the suitability of the bibliography,
the students’ willingness to take part in further
innovative teaching experiences, and a series of
assessments of their collaborative work and its
possibilities.
Apart from the questions, the students were
given the opportunity to indicate those aspects that
could be improved upon in the future. The main
observations were: there should be more practical
groupwork, debates and greater opportunities to
express opinions, though they are conscious of
the difficulties they have in participating more
in class (particularly orally); the practical work
should be more closely linked to real-life situations
and more up-to-date. They also suggested
commenting on newspaper articles in class; better
assessment of the work done, since it requires a
great effort on their part, and better organization
to reduce class sizes, and so forth. The results of
this assessment were very satisfactory and that is
the reason why the experiment has continued over
several successive academic years (Hernández
Nanclares 2004; 2006).
the PortFoLIo As A strAtegIc
Instrument oF Assessment
The question under consideration at this point
in the development of the innovation is whether
the system described here is being used strategically,
in other words, whether it is encouraging
significant and deep learning in my students. As
has been discussed throughout the section, there
is a margin to allow the assessment to be oriented
towards the kind of work done by the students and
the way in which they tackle the tasks.
To this end, the way to gain greater insight
into this experience is to ask oneself whether this
objective is really being achieved: is the right kind
of learning being stimulated? If not, what kind
of learning is being stimulated? How should the
assessment be modified to achieve the desired
results? (Gibbs & Simpson, 2003).
A first approximation to help answer these
questions is to analyse whether the activities
and products which make up the “International
Economic Relations” portfolio, in its present
form, fulfil the conditions indicated by Gibbs et
al. (2003) and presented in Table 1. So, in this
section, a reflection over the strategic elements
of the electronic portfolio of the IER subject is
done and summarized in Table 2.
Quantity and distribution of student
effort
The first condition is related to the amount and
distribution of the students’ effort. To ensure
that they dedicate sufficient time to the subject,
we developed a series of tasks to be spread out
over the term. In the first place, they were asked
to prepare reports on the international monetary
system over a period of twelve weeks. This is a
group project, but each member of the group is
responsible for one particular report. One hour of
class time per week, the hour designated “practical
work,” is entirely devoted to the development and
completion of this work. To prevent the students
from concentrating all their effort at the end,
just before the date for handing in the work and
starting the Christmas holidays, we suggested to
them a work plan with a detailed schedule fixing
a series of tasks and convenient time periods for
completing them. Each week the groups check to
see how the work is progressing. Group meetings
have been arranged for the end of November. In
them, each student has to present to the group
and to the teacher the scheme, the central ideas
and the planning of the report before dedicating
the last part of the time to writing it.