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

Global Impact of Local Educational Innovation

The innovation is carried out according to the demands or needs of an industrial, social or economic sector and is aimed at the widest possible target audience. In teaching educational innovation, the demand for innovation is very local, it is generated in each subject and for the students of it. This causes that educational innovation cannot be easily transferred between subjects. But, to meet the demands of an educational sector, the target audience for which innovation is designed must be global. The objective of this work is to study whether teaching educational innovation can be considered globally (for a global target audience and for a need in the education sector), so that it can be applied and transferred between subjects from different contexts. The information provided, during 8 training courses, by 130 university professors belonging to 12 different universities has been analyzed. It has been shown that for a given need for improvement (passive habit in students), the profile of the target audience, the demand of the learning sector and the indicators to measure educational innovation can be raised in a common way for an entire educational sector; in this case, higher education. The conclusion is that educational innovation can be designed globally, applied locally and transferred to other contexts

Technological research methodology to manage organizational change

Change is a process that is part of the nature of people; however, within organizations, it should be seen as an invention that will generate benefits in the markets. The main objective of this work is to design a technological methodology to manage change from seven administrative models. For this, a bibliographic review was carried out; the method applied was analysis-synthesis; the example technique was used to comment; the support instruments were a standard data collection form and a comparative table to analyze this data vertically and horizontally. The methodology was validated in the research units of a local university. The main results were 1) The change of management within organizations is an invention; 2) administrative models of change are used to manage it; 3) but, to be successful in managing change, the methodology of technological research is required in addition to the administrative process

Protocolo para la evaluación de materiales multimedia

El uso de las tecnologías en la formación en general, pero, sobre todo, en el contexto de la formación virtual o semipresencial está asociado a un cambio de roles de los principales actores del proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje, los profesores y los estudiantes. Esto se debe principalmente a que el profesor ya no transmite los contenidos de manera directa, sino a través de los recursos presentes en el entorno virtual. Como diseñador de contenidos, el docente necesita criterios claros de evaluación de los materiales digitales puesto que poseen características especiales. El objetivo de la presente investigación es proporcionar una guía para la valoración de los materiales formativos digitales en función de su tipología, adaptada a las necesidades y características del profesorado procedente de la enseñanza presencial. Para conocer estas características hemos utilizado metodología cuantitativa, en concreto encuestas realizadas a docentes participantes en diversos cursos de formación relacionados con la creación de materiales formativos digitales. También nos hemos centrado en la revisión de otros modelos existentes. Concluimos que la evaluación de los materiales tiene que tener en cuenta los siguientes aspectos: valor formativo, accesibilidad, aspectos de propiedad intelectual, integración correcta de los diferentes formatos, calidad técnica y usabilidad

The Neuro-Subject: A Living Entity with Learnability

In the context of an academic subject, students and teachers acquire knowledge and experience, but we must ensure that this experience will be shared and managed. In this way, the learning, acquired in the subject, remains in the subject. A proven way to manage the experience, which has been validated in previous works, is based on considering two dimensions: the conversion of individual knowledge into organizational and the use of a knowledge management system that allows classifying, organizing and finding knowledge based on ontologies and inferences between them. The primary objective of this research work is to join the two dimensions and apply an active method to manage the experience acquired by the teaching staff and students. The combination of the models RT-CICLO, as an active method, and ACCI 3.0 to transform individual and organizational knowledge can be applied so that organizational knowledge and learning are produced in a subject. In this work we have identified the actions in which the students create knowledge, as well as the type of knowledge that is created in each case. Organizational knowledge can be generated from each action, which can also be used to promote individual student learning. In the experience also have been acquired a high perception of usefulness on the part of students with regard to all types of organizational knowledge created

Cysteine mutational studies provide insight into a thiol-based redox switch mechanism of metal and DNA binding in FurA from Anabaena sp. PCC 7120

Aims: The ferric uptake regulator (Fur) is the main transcriptional regulator of genes involved in iron homeostasis in most prokaryotes. FurA from Anabaena sp. PCC 7120 contains five cysteine residues, four of them arranged in two redox-active CXXC motifs. The protein needs not only metal but also reducing conditions to remain fully active in vitro. Through a mutational study of the cysteine residues present in FurA, we have investigated their involvement in metal and DNA binding. Results: Residue C101 that belongs to a conserved CXXC motif plays an essential role in both metal and DNA binding activities in vitro. Substitution of C101 by serine impairs DNA and metal binding abilities of FurA. Isothermal titration calorimetry measurements show that the redox state of C101 is responsible for the protein ability to coordinate the metal corepressor. Moreover, the redox state of C101 varies with the presence or absence of C104 or C133, suggesting that the environments of these cysteines are mutually interdependent. Innovation: We propose that C101 is part of a thiol/disulfide redox switch that determines FurA ability to bind the metal corepressor. Conclusion: This mechanism supports a novel feature of a Fur protein that emerges as a regulator, which connects the response to changes in the intracellular redox state and iron management in cyanobacteria

An investigation into the perspectives of providers and learners on MOOC accessibility

An effective open eLearning environment should consider the target learner’s abilities, learning goals, where learning takes place, and which specific device(s) the learner uses. MOOC platforms struggle to take these factors into account and typically are not accessible, inhibiting access to environments that are intended to be open to all. A series of research initiatives are described that are intended to benefit MOOC providers in achieving greater accessibility and disabled learners to improve their lifelong learning and re-skilling. In this paper, we first outline the rationale, the research questions, and the methodology. The research approach includes interviews, online surveys and a MOOC accessibility audit; we also include factors such the risk management of the research programme and ethical considerations when conducting research with vulnerable learners. Preliminary results are presented from interviews with providers and experts and from analysis of surveys of learners. Finally, we outline the future research opportunities. This paper is framed within the context of the Doctoral Consortium organised at the TEEM'17 conference

Espacio Cooperativo en Internet: conocer y reconocer a los innovadores

Los equipos directivos del CPS y EUITIZ, junto con varios profesores de ambos Centros, algunos de ellos integrantes del grupo Formación Matemática en Ingeniería, percibíamos que son muchas y muy variadas las actividades de innovación docente que desarrollan diversos grupos de profesores con docencia en ambos Centros. Juzgamos que, a la vez que se ponen en marcha experiencias innovadoras, es necesario darlas a conocer y compartirlas con la comunidad universitaria. A eso contribuyen jornadas, tanto internas, como en el marco de congresos más generales, en las que es posible mostrar el espacio cooperativo creado en esta experiencia y configurado en Internet para ofrecer un escaparate “virtual” con las experiencias de innovación educativa desarrolladas en nuestros Centros, crear foros para su debate, animar a compartir los materiales y las ideas, y utilizar herramientas para desarrollar nuevos proyectos de forma colaborativa. Creemos que es muy interesante la existencia de foros permanentes que atraigan a participar a los “innovadores” y que animen a los que podrían serlo. Esperamos que, con este espacio cooperativo, la comunidad universitaria se beneficie del trabajo realizado por los innovadores, a la vez que se siembran semillas para que surjan nuevas iniciativas, además de conseguir coordinar los esfuerzos de innovación docente de ambos Centros.Esta experiencia se enmarca dentro del proyecto “Espacio cooperativo en Internet para promover la Innovación Educativa en el CPS y la EUITIZ”. Programa de acciones de mejora de la docencia. PMDUZ-2007-2. para cuya realización agradecemos el apoyo de la Universidad de Zaragoza

Participantes heterogéneos en MOOCs y sus necesidades de aprendizaje adaptativo

En numerosos estudios se señalan la masificación y la diversidad de perfiles de los participantes en los cursos masivos abiertos online (MOOC) como las principales causas de su baja tasa de finalización. Por otra parte, las metodologías de personalización del aprendizaje, junto a las tecnologías de la información, que permiten realizar técnicas de adaptatividad, figuran en informes internacionales como una forma eficaz de mejorar el aprendizaje. En este trabajo se explora la percepción de los participantes en MOOC respecto a sus necesidades de adaptatividad en este tipo de cursos, así como su relación con distintos aspectos de los participantes, como sus perfiles (género, edad, ubicación geográfica y nivel académico), su experiencia previa o conocimiento sobre el tema del MOOC y su motivación para iniciar el MOOC. Se realiza el estudio a través de una encuesta cumplimentada por los participantes en el Campus MOOC de Innovación Educativa. Se concluye que la edad o género de los participantes no influye significativamente en su necesidad de técnicas adaptativas en un MOOC. Sin embargo, residir en un país de América Latina, tener una profesión de gestión o inscribirse en un MOOC con una motivación concreta son algunos de los factores que influyen en un mayor deseo de técnicas de adaptatividad en un MOOC. Los resultados obtenidos contribuirán a mejorar los diseños adaptativos de los MOOC y son fácilmente transferibles a cualquier curso de formación en línea, en formación semipresencial o virtual