Abstract:

It has been 10 years since Spanish universities adapted to the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) and lecturers began integrating evaluation systems that were not previously being used. In the case of the Bachelor´s Degree in Civil Engineering of the University of Burgos, in the first academic years most lecturers decided to partially modify the traditional evaluation systems and adapt them to the new requirements. But in this time, thanks to the experience and training of teachers and increasingly smaller groups, continuous evaluation has acquired more importance as preferred system of evaluation. The specific case of the course “Representation Techniques”, in the first semester of the first year is analyzed; the first semester is the first contact of the students with the university and the academic success/failure in the first subjects can mark their academic career, even their abandonment.

The results have been analyzed during the last 7 years. At the beginning, in the first five years, the evaluation was mainly based on two partial exams to test the knowledge acquired during the course, in a similar way to the environment prior to the EHEA. The last two years evolved into a continuous evaluation system, with regular evaluations and more exercise deliveries with greater feedback to the students, as a key element that allows them to improve or redirect their learning.

Statistics on the academic results of these last two years show an improvement over the previously used system. Students’ surveys confirm that the current continuous assessment system has been helpful to their learning.

Keywords:

Continuous evaluation, student satisfaction, higher education, civil engineering.