Research in Engineering Education Symposium 2011 - rees2009

Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) Página 466 de 957
An improvement of academic results by a self-study methodology in Transportation
Engineering subject
Francisco Aparicio, Blanca Arenas, Felipe Jiménez, Enrique Alcalá
francisco.aparicio@upm.es , barenas@etsii.upm.es , felipe.jimenez@upm.es ,
enrique.alcala@upm.es
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
Spain
Abstract: This paper presents the results of a change in methodology when
teaching the subject "Transport Engineering" in the BS in Industrial
Engineering, in addition to the implementation of a continuous evaluation
system. The change in methodology consists in the development of a study
procedure for the students and the assessment of student capacity for analysis
and synthesis. To implement these developments, a self-study guide has been
prepared with a specification of objectives according to the Bloom taxonomy,
knowledge required and necessary resources; self-evaluation tests and problems
specifically designed towards the learning objectives. Midterm tests have been
carried out and their results have been compared with two control groups
following the traditional methodology teaching. The statistical analysis of the
data collected and the comparison between the different groups indicates that
the methodology and the on-line material have been useful to the students,
achieving on average and improvement in academic performance.
Introduction
The academic performance is intimately related with the quality of the education and this
depends, on a great basis, on the didactic and evaluation methodologies applied. Despite of
this fact, the methodology of education has remained invariable in many University
institutions, on which it can be appreciated, on another hand, an extraordinary evolution
of other aspects of academic life (Aparicio and González, 1994). With the renovation of the
training as raised in the frame of the process known as “Bolonia”, it is intended, amongst
other objectives, the evolution from a education that has as its axis the contents of the
subjects, and the exposition of them by the teacher, towards a new strategy centered on
the learning objectives, the active participation of the students in their achievement, and
the intellectual interaction with the students by means of debates, non autonomous
problem solving as well as other support and evaluation activities. In this context, it can be
framed this teaching experience which combines two strategies: an educational
methodological change in teaching to promote active learning by defining the learning
objectives as innovation factor and the implementation of a continuous evaluation system
of the subject “Transport Engineering”, on the 9 th semester of the degree in Bachelor in
Industrial Engineering intensifications of Industrial Organization, Construction and
Manufacturing on the course 2010-2011 (from this on will be referred as the
“experimental group EG”) (Aparicio et al., 2010). The methodological change has consisted
in the development of a methodology for students study and the evaluation of
competences as analysis and synthesis capability, the ability to solve problems individual
and collectively, according to the objectives stated on the methodology. For the
Proceedings of Research in Engineering Education Symposium 2011
Madrid, 4 th - 7 th October 2011