Research in Engineering Education Symposium 2011 - rees2009

Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) Página 927 de 957
influenced student study habits and how those factors affected students' final course
score.We have also identified certain difficulties derived from the new educational models.
The significant increase of the students’ workload affects the academic results achieved by
certain students. They are unable to meet the deadlines when dealing with a big amount of
different activities (mid-terms tests, written reports, oral presentations, etc). Thus, a
correct measurement of the real workload associated to every task and a coordination
among lecturers of the different subjects turn out to be a major issue in the success of the
put-into-practice of active learning methodologies. In this research work we confirm the
previous assumption by gauging the opinion of the students involved in a change of
methodological system that affects a global academic program.
A particular and problematic case: part-time students
Particular attention should be paid to the case of part-time students, who represent an
increasing percentage of our students. The number of students enrolled in the Spanish
universities has suffered a dramatic reduction in the last decade. Particularly, the number
of people studying at the University of Zaragoza has fallen from the 45.291 students
enrolled during the academic year 1997/1998 to the 31.566 during the 2009/2010 year.
Every faculty has been affected by this important reduction, regardless the field of
knowledge. Needless to say that the University authorities are very concerned about this
problem and have been encouraging faculties’ deans to promote their studies and to
broaden the profile of potential students towards part-time students. Professionals
interested in lifelong learning turn out to be the ideal target for the student recruitment
campaign of the universities. According to the point of view of the part-time students,
there is mismatch between the workload required to follow a course and the offered
resources, since the educational material does not take into account their particular
situation. Difficulties arise when these students cannot attend the majority of the lectures,
seminars and laboratory sessions and, consequently, the work planned for every week
cannot be carried out. Therefore, an alternative should be given to these part-time
students to facilitate their work minimizing the impact of their absence in some lecture or
lab session. ANECA (National Agency for Evaluation, Quality and Accreditation, created by
the Spanish Government the 19th of July of 2002) is the auditor institution of the
European Higher Education Area Spain. ANECA requires Spanish universities to include in
their new academic proposals developed in the post-Bologna scenario the explanation of
the resources offered to part-time students to help them finish their degrees in a
reasonable period. In this sense, ANECA promotes the use e-learning activities through
virtual platforms (Ramos and Palacios, 2010). Nevertheless, according to answers to
questionnaires and the students’ opinion expressed by other means, there is still plenty of
room for improvement in this area.
Data from the students’ self-assessment process
At the end of an academic semester, the students enrolled in every course taught at the
University of Zaragoza are requested to fill a questionnaire. The results of this selfassessment
process fulfilled by students throughout four consecutive academic years are
shown here. This survey consists of 32 likert questions where students express how
Proceedings of Research in Engineering Education Symposium 2011
Madrid, 4 th - 7 th October 2011