Abstract:

Bologna process aims to make European universities more competitive and modern, seeking students to play an active role in their educational development. In this context, universities are increasingly adapting their classical way of teaching to a more multidisciplinary scope. One of the latest innovative methodologies to be incorporated worldwide into Universities are SPOCs (Small Private Online Courses). SPOC is a new e-learning strategy that applies MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) teaching resources to Higher education. SPOC can be defined as an online course of a particular subject, placed on a virtual/internet platform, to which the enrolled students have free access, and in which they will be delivered, either partially or totally, the content of such subject, thus being the educational process free from time and place restrictions. It should be remarked that, opposite to MOOC, SPOCs are designed for a reduced number of students who are already enrolled in a particular course; therefore the target students have a pre-set profile.

At the University of Granada, and in particular at the Faculty of Pharmacy, we are gradually implementing the flipped classroom methodology at the Inorganic Chemistry subject, taught in English. One of the innovative teaching tools used in this transition between classical and flipped classroom teaching methodologies is the introduction of one SPOC course inside the University online platform PRADO. The course is divided in different modules according to the learning guide of the subject but also includes additional interdisciplinary knowledge, from different subjects, which should be reminded by students to successfully achieve the competencies of the course. Each module consists of video capsules, a PDF with the most relevant theoretical concepts and self-evaluation exams, which review each of the units within the course. Herein we will analyze the syllabus of the SPOC course, evaluate the advantages and drawbacks of this novel methodology and discuss the current experience and results, as well as the future perspectives of SPOC multidisciplinary courses in the field of Chemistry.

Acknowledgments:
Financial support from the Innovative Teaching Project PID18-483 (University of Granada) is acknowledged. We would also like to thank all the students who ‘dared’ to enroll this English course and actively participated in this initiative.

Keywords:

SPOC, flipped classroom, internacionalization, chemistry.