Abstract:

During the course 2014/2015, for the first time, the Final Degree Project in Biotechnology Degree (FDP-BTD) at the University of Cadiz has been implemented. The FDP is a compulsory subject of 12 ECTS and located in the eighth semester. There are examples of the implementation of this type of work at other universities and degrees, but, it was necessary to adapt the Teaching Guide of the subject to the university, the faculty and the degree context. In our particular case, we propose a skill evaluation procedure which allows an uniform and objective rating for all evaluation agents involved in this process.

In this context, early in the course 2014/2015, the Committee Final Degree Project of Biotechnology Degree (CFDP-BTD), formed by a group of teachers from different areas of knowledge involved in BTD, was officially established. One of the tasks assigned to this Committee was the "Development of a Guide for the Evaluation of Final Degree Project in Biotechnology Degree at the University of Cadiz", for which it was applied and obtained an ”Innovative project to improve teaching activity” supported by University of Cadiz Innovation Office.

The Commission became operational in the first half of the course. Firstly, the work planning was designed and the following objectives were proposed:
• Analysis of the skills that must be acquired for passing the subject FDP-BTD.
• Wording a list of criteria that allows assessing skills in a simple way.
• Determination of the evaluation agent (Tutor or Evaluation Committee) and evaluation moment (during Development Work / during Report Reading/ during the Exhibition and Defense) in which each criterion should be evaluated.
• Assigning the specific contribution of each evaluation moment to the final grade (Tutor in Development / Evaluation Committee in the Report / Evaluation Committee at the Exhibition and Defense).
• Development of a software tool to facilitate and expedite the evaluation and, in turn, promotes the uniform application of criteria and objectivity among different tutors and various Evaluation Committees.
• Designing a teaching guide for FDP-BTD, where students have available the basic features of the subject, the skills associated to this subject, the list of evaluation criteria and the rating system approved by the CFDP-BTD.
• Exhibition/Exposure of Teaching Guide and Assessment Tool to all those involved in the FDP-BTD (students, tutors and members of the Evaluation Committees) in different sessions.
• Evaluation of results and improvement proposal.
The work has been successfully completed, leaving only implementation and evaluation of results in the first calls for exposition and defense of the current course.

Keywords:

Final Degree Work, Biotechnology Degree, Skill Assessment.