Abstract:

The learning process of the Civil Engineering Programs has a high practical component, which has increased since the implementation of the Bologna Process. Its implementation forced the redesign of curricula, subject contents, teaching practices and assessment methods, which were traditionally based on a final exam. In this context, we organized practices and group works at different subjects related to hydraulic and coastal engineering, with the aims of encouraging both the teamwork ability and the individual responsibility through the distribution and organization of tasks. The capacities of communication, transfer of knowledge and reciprocal learning between students are also directly reinforced.

After some years since the implementation of group works, the following problems have been detected:
(1) some students usually work within the same group, with division of tasks across different subjects, and
(2) unequal distributions of work load between team members in many cases.

To cope with these problems, we proposed a new methodology to form the workgroups based on an initial questionnaire to evaluate previous knowledge and skills. The groups are then organized according to the students' level with the purposes of balancing the previous knowledge and skills between groups. Heterogeneous teams are enhanced simulating the reality that students will face in their professional career. The methodology was tested in two subjects of Civil Engineering Bachelor and Master Programs at the University of Granada over the academic year 2016-2017.

Thanks to the redistribution of 'unknown' students in the workgroups, the students reported several cases of parasitism which was properly corrected. In addition, according to the results of an opinion survey at the Degree’ subject, students revealed that working with different classmates was a quite positive experience. Fifteen of the sixteen students who completed the survey encourage us to keep this methodology in the next courses. The rest of the survey results were also quite favorable, with average ratings greater than 4 out of 5. These results were compared to the students' opinions in another subject of the same degree ('Design and Construction of Maritime Works') in which students formed freely the workgroups. The comparison between both surveys allows us to confirm the favorable opinions of the students, although all students who completed the survey of ‘Design and Construction of Maritime Works’ stated that they prefer to form the workgroups freely. At the Master subject, with a higher number of students, the monitoring task and evaluation validate these results, although there were numerous complaints by the students related to the implementation of the methodology.

For future years, it is intended to incorporate as teaching practice role-playing exercises focused on a subject-related problem. Students will be splitted up into groups of two or three people, and each group will represent one of the agents involved in the problem (e.g., administrations, institutions, companies, stakeholders or associations, among others). These role-playing practices will guarantee not only the acquisition of competences by students, but also a training to express arguments, defend ideas and interests, and discuss them with other interlocutors. The incorporation of English as language for the presentations and debates constitute other challenge to be addressed in the coming years.

Keywords:

Workgroups, previous knowledge, survey, role-playing.