Abstract:

The establishment of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) is trying to change the modalities of learning from lecture to other alternatives that are based on new Information and Communications Technologies (ICT). The use of ICT in education can easily develop key aspects of the EHEA, such as transparency and quality in learning, global assessment of student work and finally and perhaps most important, student autonomy. Thus, the teacher starts to act as a guide for students to facilitate their use of resources and tools they need to explore and develop new knowledge and skills among which are the new information technologies. So the teacher of today must become involved in the design and development of new content and distribution process, including virtual teaching platforms.

Current e-learning forms are commonly based on improving the learning process through the enhancement of certain skills in students, such as collaborative, competitive or problem-based learning. The present project presents the design and use of a web-based framework, called TOXICOL, for the creation, development and implementation of heterogeneous learning environments. It offers a graphical user interface for students to interact with the need of only any generic Wi-Fi compliant device.

The basis of the project is the establishment of a connection, in real-time, through the portal, between students and the Professor, both during the class and later, leading to an interactive learning. The Professor interlays, along masterful exposure, tests that are projected into a screen. These test questions tend to find out if students have understood the concept just explained. Students have a limited time to respond using their portable devices for this purpose. Once they have responded, the teacher gives the correct answers and explains why this is so. The students can also ask question to the Professor, being these answered in real-time or later if the Professor decides it is not relevant to the other students.

The project objective is to make sustainable the continuous assessment as a part of the European Higher Education Area. Also, it is a tool that helps energize classes versus passivity imposed based master classes in an exhibition supported by transparencies, keeping students engaged without stopping them from taking notes, and also provides the possibility of promoting discussion in large groups so that everyone participates.

Changing the teaching model is a big effort for the teacher, because of the adaptation to this model lessons, integrating interactive test and quizzes in class and real-time evaluating students, for whom also represents an effort having to adapt to a new model of class. This effort will improve student achievement by increasing their participation in class and setting the knowledge provided by the teacher, and the teachers will assess themselves, and will be allow to know which aspects of the class should be better explained.

Keywords:

Clicker, Continuous Assessment, EHEA, ICT, Virtual interactive platform.