¿Cuanto tiempo necesita invertir el alumnado para el aprendizaje de una asignatura?: estimación de los créditos ECTS de una asignatura de primer curso de ingeniería

In order to adapt the current courses to ECTS credits there is a need to estimate how much time a student should invest in learning one course. In the Polytechnic School at the university UPV-EHU a first preliminary study has been carried out on this matter in several courses. We have used a designed weekly questionnaire, which was handed out to all the students in the class and, when needed, a personal interview was held with the students. Results show that the rhythm of study and the number of hours is strongly conditioned by the assessment system used in the course.De cara a adaptar las actuales asignaturas a los créditos ECTS, resulta necesario estimar cuánto tiempo necesita invertir un alumno para el aprendizaje de una asignatura. En la Escuela Universitaria Politécnica de la UPV-EHU se ha realizado un primer estudio indagatorio sobre este tema en varias asignaturas. Se ha recurrido a un diseño de cuestionario semanal a todos los estudiantes de la clase y, en caso necesario, entrevista individual, con la colaboración de los estudiantes. Los resultados indican que el ritmo de estudio y la cantidad de horas están fuertemente condicionados por el sistema de evaluación de la asignatura

Effects of nitrogen concentration on the taxonomic and functional structure of phytoplankton communities in the Western Baltic Sea and implications for the European water framework directive

The European water framework directive and the marine strategy framework directive have the objective to establish at least ‘good’ ecological status in all European waters by 2015. Therefore a classification system has to be established in each European country, in order to assess their water bodies. For the German coastal waters of the Baltic Sea, a classification system for phytoplankton based on the abundance of Cyanophyceae and Chlorophyceae was already presented. This system has been successfully adapted in regions with low salinity levels (15 PSU). All present taxonomic groups, most common species and functional groups were tested. It could be shown that all tested correlations to nitrogen concentration as eutrophication descriptor are relatively week. Nevertheless, the biovolume of Cryptophyceae was found to be the most reliable phytoplankton composition indicator, which could serve as future assessment criterion. Furthermore, as proposed by some experts, the use of maximal dissolved winter nitrogen concentration as eutrophication descriptor might be an advantage over using the total nitrogen concentrations in summer