Impact indicators of educational innovations based on active methodologies

"Think global, act locally" is one of the phrases that define the idea of any innovation. It denotes that the impact must be global and contribute to the advancement of knowledge in a specific sector, for example. The innovation applied in the classroom is known as “teaching educational innovation” and thinking in global is complicated because innovation is carried out in a specific subject. Specific contexts have needs and conditions that difficult the transference outside the subject itself. This work provides a method to consider any teaching educational innovation in global terms, even before knowing the specific innovation method to apply. In this way, transferability would be enhanced and the global impact on the change of the educational model would be improved. For this purpose, a study has been carried out with more than 85 professors from different universities. The objective of the study is to show that they have a common vision on the indicators to measure the leaning impact when they apply teaching educational innovation in their own subjects

¿Es la cartera de servicios un instrumento útil para la asignación de recursos farmacéuticos en atención primaria?

ObjetivoConocer si en ciertos equipos de atención primaria ha existido asociación entre el grado de cobertura en determinados servicios y el gasto en fármacos para las patologías incluidas en ellos.DiseñoEstudio descriptivo, retrospectivo.EmplazamientoAtención primaria. INSALUD. Área 1, Huesca.Mediciones y resultados principalesUsando los datos de coberturas de cartera de servicios de 1999 y de gasto en farmacia por subgrupos terapéuticos durante el período enero-octubre del mismo año se analizó:–El servicio de atención a pacientes crónicos: hipercolesterolemia, y se comparó con el gasto en el subgrupo B04A (hipolipemiantes/antiateromatosos).–El servicio de atención a pacientes crónicos: diabetes, y se comparó con el gasto en los subgrupos A10A (insulinas) y A10B (antidiabéticos orales).El gasto se expresó como gasto ajustado por 100 asegurados, usando para el ajuste los coeficientes del INSALUD (coeficiente activos, 0,732; coeficiente pensionistas, 0,268).La relación entre ambas variables se representó gráficamente por una nube de puntos.La existencia de asociación entre ellas se midió utilizando el coeficiente de correlación de Pearson.No se ha encontrado asociación estadísticamente significativa entre el resultado en coberturas y el gasto en farmacia en estos subgrupos.Hipercolesterolemia/hipolipemiantescoeficiente de Pearson, 0,334; IC del 95%, −0,115 a 0,669.Diabetes/antidiabéticos orales e insulinacoeficiente de Pearson < 0,1.ConclusionesExtraemos dos conclusiones:–Las diferencias en coberturas de los servicios analizados no tienen relación directa con el gasto en fármacos.–La cartera de servicios no resulta un buen método en la asignación de recursos para el consumo de fármacos.ObjectiveTo find whether in certain primary care teams an association exists between the level of coverage in determined services and expenditure on drugs for pathologies included in these services.DesignRetrospective descriptive study.SettingPrimary care, INSALUD, Area 1, Huesca.Measurements and main resultsUsing the data on coverage of the service portfolio in 1999 and pharmacy expenditure by therapeutic sub-groups during January-October of the same year, the following was analysed:–The service caring for chronic patients: Hypercholesterolaemia and comparison with expenditure in sub-group B04A (lipid-lowerers/ anti-atheroma drugs).–The service caring for chronic patients: Diabetes and comparison with expenditure in sub-groups A10A (insulin) and A10B (oral antidiabetic drugs).Expenditure was expressed as cost adjusted per 100 insured persons, using the INSALUD coefficients for the adjustment (active person coefficient: 0.732; pensioner coefficient: 0.268). The relationship between the two variables was represented graphically by a cloud of dots. Association between them was measured by Pearson's correlation coefficient. No statistically significant correlation was found between coverage and pharmacy expenditure in these sub-groups. Hypercholesterolaemia/lipidlowerers: Pearson's coefficient=0.334, 95% CI (−0.115 to 0.669). Diabetes/oral diabetic drugs and insulin: Pearson's coefficient < 0.1.ConclusionsThe differences in coverage of the services analysed bear no direct relationship to pharmacy expenditure. The portfolio of services is not a good method of allocation of pharmaceutical resources

Enhancing the Main Characteristics of Active Methodologies: A Case with Micro Flip Teaching and Teamwork

All active methodologies have common objectives and processes. Their mission is to ensure that students participate actively in the learning process, cooperating with other students, reflecting, making decisions and creating knowledge. For this purpose, groups that work in a timely manner to carry out an activity or in a more stable way through work teams are usually formed. In both cases, active learning takes place within the groups. This work proposes fostering an active inter-team learning; that is, forming a meta-team where active learning takes place. The aim is checking if students who follow an active methodology, have the active habit; that is, if the work teams share knowledge among themselves and use it to improve their own knowledge. The proposed model contains a virtual layer that all teams can access, making possible the cooperation, the creation of new knowledge, reflection and decision making. This model is applicable to any active methodology and the proposed model has been applied to the Micro Flip Teaching methodology. This quasi experimental research methodology, based on quantitative and qualitative assessment, shows how the work teams, in an Engineering context, in this case, use this virtual layer and how that use impacts the academic performance of their members. Another conclusion of this work is that feedback must be included in active methodologies

APFT: Active peer-based Flip Teaching

The Flip Teaching model1 (the lesson at home, the homework in class) has been used to actively engage students in their learning process during the lectures. In this method, passive learning (the lesson) is transferred to homework and the activity (exercises, debates, collaborative learning, etc.) to the class. More advanced Flip Teaching models carry out an intermediate phase in which the students can actively participate "at home", such as Micro Flip Teaching model. This model proposes an on-line activity composed by the learning of the lesson and the realization of an individual micro-activity on the same and then, in class, work on the obtained results in the micro-activity. In this work, the Micro Flip Teaching model has been adapted to carry out the online activity in a collaborative way in work teams. The main novelty of this proposal is that the active participation of the students generates resources that can be used as didactic material in future editions of the subject. To evaluate the impact of this proposal, an experimental group has been established that used resources generated by students from previous subject editions, while the control group used only resources generated by the teacher. The research shows that the resources generated by students are equally effective than those generated by teachers

Students' knowledge sharing to improve learning in academic engineering courses

This paper presents an example of scaffolding during the development of an engineering course, in which students are supported by teachers and other students. This proposal covers the benefits of the use of shared knowledge repositories in which content was created by students. Teamwork is the transversal competence that is considered to be the central knowledge topic. The cooperation among students through teamwork methodology has generated more than 500 learning resources and a knowledge management system, BRACO, which has been created with these resources to manage information and conduct searches according to each student''s profile and needs. The generated knowledge spiral is composed of knowledge circles that increase during each iteration of the action-research implementation. The reflection phase of this research consists of the evaluation of the impact on learning for students in the experimental group after using the knowledge resources generated by students in relation with teamwork competence, in contrast with the control group that does not experience this intervention. With regard to the assessments, several surveys and a learning analytics system, this paper explains the underlying methodological foundations and the empirical study. In comparison to the control group, the experimental group obtained better results in relation to indicators of positive learning results, such as studentstudent interaction, teamwork development and final grades during the teamwork process

La apuesta por la excelencia en la formación práctica universitaria de futuros profesores

Las revisiones de las aportaciones científicas que se hacen a las reuniones y encuentros sobre la formación inicial del docente, en general, y sobre el prácticum, de un modo más particular, dan a conocer el enorme interés científico que este componente formativo despierta entre los investigadores y proporcionan una idea del volumen de la producción en este foco de indagación científica. El presente trabajo pretende ser una contribución en esta dirección, perfilando, primero, las principales áreas temáticas en las que se han centrado los estudios sobre el prácticum y desgranando, después, indicadores clave garantes de un prácticum de calidad

Study of the flexibility of a learning analytics tool to evaluate teamwork competence acquisition in different contexts

Learning analytics tools and methodologies aim to facilitate teachers and/or decision makers with information and knowledge about what is happening in virtual learning environments in a straightforward and effortless way. However, it is necessary to apply these tools and methodologies in different contexts with a similar success, that is, that they should be flexible and portable enough. There exist several learning analytics tools that only works properly with very specific versions of learning platforms. In this paper, the authors aim to evaluate the flexibility and portability of a methodology and a learning analytics tool that supports individual assessment of teamwork competence. In order to do so the methodology and the tool are applied in a similar course from two different academic contexts. After the experiment, it is possible to see that the learning analytics tool seems to work properly and the suggested new functionalities are similar in both contexts. The methodology can be also applied but results could be improved if some meetings are carried out to check how team works are progressing with their tasks