Abstract:

We explain the innovation activity carried out in the subject "Requirements of the Measurement and Applications of Correlation" of the Master's Degree in Physical and Sports Performance at Pablo de Olavide University in Seville (Spain) during the 2018-19 academic year. This experience attempts to take academic advantage of the digital and technological revolution we are experiencing, incorporating both mobile applications and teaching videos to postgraduate studies.

More and more mobile applications help us on a daily basis. Their variety and potential improve diverse social aspects and, of course, educational. In the academic field, mobile applications are an incentive for the acquisition of the competences taught in this subject. During 2018-19, the use of free mobile applications as an improvement of the statistical skills and competences developed in this subject has been proposed. Different activities through applications such as "Probability and Statistics", "Stat Suite" or "Statistical Test" have been realized in the classroom to maintain the student’s attention and suggested to work at home in order to advance in the teaching-learning process.

In addition to these theoretical-practical content applications, the use of an instant messaging application, namely "Hangouts", has been promoted as a tool to facilitate communication between the student and the teacher and even among students. This proposal eases specially the communication channel for those students who, with great frequency, do not reside in our city and attend only the face-to-face classes. The aim was to provide an easily and widely accessible interaction medium where students could make comments and raise individual and/or collective questions. This new channel of communication offered a wide flexibility of action with the students, which receives special emphasis when dealing with postgraduate students who often combine their studies with their professional activity.
On the other hand, the tutors of such a subject considered necessary to create learning objects in order to help the understanding and assimilation of the contents, which would reinforce and complement the traditional documentation available in the virtual classroom for the students. The creation of this new audio-visual material intended the students had the possibility of revising, when they wanted, practical contents taught in the classes. Students sometimes may present difficulties to assimilate correctly the written documentation due to the difficulty of the topic, the rhythm of the classes or the students’ statistical level. That is why it is a very interesting opportunity to visualize, as many times as you like, ad-hoc explanations of specific content explained in the classes. These teaching videos, which were made with the help of the Multimedia Lab staff, explained the most relevant aspects taught in the sessions, but using a "digital board" where the most significant aspects of the techniques and models explained could be visualized, helping the acquisition of the competences required in this subject.

These activities improved the teaching-learning process and encouraged the interest of the students in their learning.

Keywords:

Postgraduate studies, mobile and instant messaging applications, teaching videos.