Abstract:

Face-to-face learning has been the usual methodology for teaching along centuries. This fact limits the scope of schools and universities to a close environment. New technologies let us reach a wider audience, and rapidly share any kind of information materials, providing us with permanent repositories. Master's degree students usually reach a maturity level that allows them to follow online courses successfully. Our experience, in the Master in Computational Mathematics at University Jaume I, where face-to-face and online students share the same materials, is positive. Typical students of undergraduate level are not mature enough for following online courses, but there is always a specific group of students meeting difficulties for attending classes (because of labor, convalescence, family restrictions, rural settings or foreigner students, among other reasons), that might take profit of materials uploaded to the online virtual classroom. We shall analyze the pros and cons of the proposal, and discuss the result of the conducted experience.

Keywords:

Online learning, new educational technologies.