Abstract:

This paper shows the successfully application of a blended-learning methodology using a set of interactive digital resources. This work has been developed for the subject Data Transport Systems, which is about computer network systems and is taught in the Computer Science Engineering degree at the University of Alicante, in Spain. These new resources are based on interactive user guides for the practical exercises, created as SCORM objects, self-assessment and qualification questionnaires. The set of digital resources has been included in a web learning platform based on Moodle with two main objectives: to stimulate the autonomous learning by providing interactivity between students to make flexible the way how the students study, and to facilitate the implantation of subjects in the new European Space of Higher Education system by using tools which offer collaborative surroundings.
In order to analyze the results that the new materials and the educational methodology employed have had on students’ learning, a complete study based on the scores of all questionnaires (both self-assessment and evaluation questionnaires) has been carried out. In addition, the student's opinion on the new interactive digital resources developed for the subject has been also analyzed.
The results of the study show that students who used self-assessment questionnaires obtained higher scores in the practical assessment test. It has also been verified that students' marks for this academic year 2010-11 have improved and the percentage of students who passed the practical assessment test is higher, both compared with the past academic year. This indicates that this work has been helpful and useful to improve students’ learning. Moreover, it has been verified that qualifications were not improved when student uses more than of three attempts for the self-assessment questionnaires.
With regard to the students’ opinion, they rated very well the new materials included in Moodle, and especially the self-assessment questionnaires. Although students believe that the practices did not have great difficulty, they are very useful for the professional world. They also believe that the evaluation questionnaires are well suited to the contents of the subject and are very similar to the self-assessment, although the distribution of the difficulty of the questions should be improved.
Finally, it is worth to mention that the blended-learning methodology using learning educational resources based on digital documents, web packages and interaction tools, has been successfully applied to provide more flexibility and autonomy to the learning process and it has been improved students’ marks, in comparison with classical teaching and learning.

Keywords:

Blended-learning, constructive learning, digital resources, Moodle, self-assessment.