Abstract:

The Civil Engineering degree adapted to the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) has been gradually implemented from the 2010-2011 academic year, replacing the former degree of Technical Engineer of Public Works. Due to this process the subjects of the new degree have significantly changed in many aspects: organization of teaching activities, teaching methodologies, assessment systems, etc. In order to facilitate this process of adaptation and promote the implementation of innovative educational activities in the new subjects the Group of Educational Innovation in Civil Engineering (GIDEC) was created. This group is formed by several teachers especially interested in renewing teaching methodologies. In this paper, the adaptation to the EHEA of one of the specific subjects of the degree is presented. It is the case of the subject Design and Construction of Linear Infrastructures, which belongs to the 2nd academic year of the degree and has assigned fundamental competencies related to the specialty of Transportation and Urban Services. During the last two academic years (2011-2012 and 2012-2013) in which the subject has been taught, a new organization of the teaching activities and methodologies were introduced with the objective to increase the number of teaching activities based on innovative student-centred methods and to reduce the importance of the traditional method widely used to train civil engineers. New educational activities have been implemented, improving the communication between students and teachers, and providing constant feedback to the students on the development of their learning process. In addition, a new assessment system which takes into account the regularity and continuity of the learning process, and not only the results of intermediate or final tests, was also implemented. The results obtained so far are being satisfactory and the new educational activities have being very well received by students.