Abstract:

The Open University in Spain is one of the world’s leading providers of flexible, high-quality online degrees and distance learning or sometimes referred to as “e learning”. Its mission is to be closer to people and places, aiming to provide suitable distance learning for everybody. The university campus is physically centred in Madrid but the internal administrative structure is organised in different “associate centres” distributed all over the country in the different counties, acting as local offices.

New teaching resources have been recently implemented in this student-centred system, based on the student ability required to achieve objectives, specified in terms of the learning outcomes and competences to be acquired. Nowadays this university is developing an extraordinary new educational architecture leading to improve the network that already offers to these associate centres all over the country. The educational method followed here fits in the new blended learning concept or “b-Learning”, where, on the one hand “magister and practicum lectures” can be conjugated together with tutorship’s attendance, and on the other hand “personal work” that fellows manage according to their availability by means of study materials, virtual platforms, radio and television broadcasting, etc. One of these elements adopted is based on virtual tools such as the so called Audio Visual technology over IP or “AVIP”. It allows lecturers a better interaction with students through both pre-recorded material, ready to visualize, or by live web conferences.

In this work a full description followed by a critical review of this learning and teaching tool will be addressed, including a further discussion of the experiences acquired for both lecturers and fellows in this scenario, concluding that this innovative tool represents a valuable contribution leading to a better and a more comprehensive understanding of the contents proposed by different subjects.

References:
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[3] Genco N, Hoelttae-Otto K, Seepersad CC., (2012) An experimental investigation of the innovation capabilities of undergraduate engineering students, Journal of Engineering Education, 101(1), pp. 60-81.
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[5] San-José JT, Sancibrian R, Blanco JM, Rojí E, Marcos I, Larrauri MI, (2015), Teaching students how to solve complex engineering problems by using decision making approaches: value analysis, Proceedings of INTED 2015 Conference, 2nd-4th March, 2015, Madrid, Spain.

Keywords:

b-learning, teaching methodologies, Higher education, ECTS experiences, Open University.