Abstract:

One of the topics of the The European Higher Education Area (EHEA) is student-centered learning (SCL) [1]. This learning approach focuses on skills and practices that allow students to learn throughout their lives and solve problems independently, rather than focusing on the teacher's input. Learning Management Systems such as Moodle facilitate the creation of activities so students can acquire the above skills [2].

This paper is a continuation of previous studies [3-7]. They analyze some experiments on learning in Mathematics carried out with first-year students of the Chemistry Degree of the University of Cádiz. These studies can be useful because they are easily be extrapolated to every technical degree. In these five papers, it is inquired into if the Moodle tools improve the teaching of Mathematics.

The current paper continues in the same line of work, and analyzes the results achieved by Chemistry students when they perform several activities in a virtual Moodle course. This year, we have used the difference between the scores of the ordinary call (February) and the extraordinary call (June or September) to measure the improvement produced by Moodle activities. In addition, we have studied the possible influence of tutoring sessions on the final grade. We employ statistical inference in these analyzes. The advantage of statistical inference is that the conclusions are not limited to the sample, but rather they allow predictions to be made for future learners.

The study reveals that the Moodle activities performed along the course are reflected in the final exam mark. Of special interest is the progress attained by the students who completed Moodle questionnaires between the ordinary and extraordinary call. Unfortunately, the tutoring sessions does not have such a positive influence on the final exam grade.

References:
[1] A. Attard, E. Di Ioio, K. Geven, and R. Santa, Student Centered Learning, An Insight Into Theory And Practice. Bucharest: Partos Timisoara, 2010.
[2] G. C. Oproiu, “A Study about Using E-learning Platform (Moodle) in University Teaching Process,” Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, vol. 180, pp. 426-432, 2015.
[3] M. E. Cornejo-Piñero, J. Medina-Moreno, E. Ramírez-Poussa, “Las Matemáticas de los alumnos de nuevo ingreso,” II Congreso Internacional: Uso y buenas prácticas con TIC, Málaga, 2011.
[4] J. Medina-Moreno, “E-learning con MOODLE para alumnos de matemáticas,” I Congreso Virtual Internacional sobre Innovación Pedagógica y Praxis Educativa (INNOVAGOGIA 2012), Sevilla, pp. 840-845, 2012.
[5] J. Medina-Moreno, J. García-Andrades, M. Villegas-Vallecillos, “Teaching Mathematics in technical graduations with MOODLE,” 6th International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies (EDULEARN14), Barcelona, pp. 3194-3202, 2014.
[6] J. Medina-Moreno, I. Izquierdo-Cruz, M. Villegas-Vallecillos, “Moodle and the continuous evaluation in mathematics learning,” 8th International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation (ICERI2015), Sevilla, pp. 1714-1723, 2015.
[7] A. J. Arriaza-Gómez, D. Lobo-Palacios, J. Medina-Moreno, M. Villegas-Vallecillos, “A study on the influence of Moodle activities using statistical inference,” 10th International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation (ICERI2017), Sevilla, pp. 5643-5650, 2017.

Keywords:

Teaching innovation, Moodle, Mathematics e-learning, tutoring.