Abstract:

A learning-centred system, where the acquired knowledge must be understood by the students to apply it in real life, has two important aspects requiring improvement:
(1) how the students evaluate their acquisition of problem-based learning (PBL), and
(2) how the teachers can reduce time for assessing students’ activities.

To provide the activities with a formative assessment, students must be informed about their results with a good and fast feedback. It may involve, however, too much effort for training assessments that usually are a small percentage of the final grade. To reconcile both above-mentioned aspects, we designed a PBL with the Moodle Lesson module.

The aims of this study were:
(1) to analyse the use of this tool in our teaching-learning process, validating the training capacity of the resource,
(2) to evaluate the adequacy of the tool with the students' progress,
(3) to assess the formative capacity of the tool on the training and skills achieved with its use, and
(4) to minimize the effort of the teachers in the activity follow-up.

We implemented a Lesson on a topic of Applied Animal Biology (6th semester of the Environmental Sciences Graduate Program). The group class was forty students working in pairs. The task was scheduled for two hours, and the resource included links to a guide, notes and related material (a video and a research paper) with ramifications linked to key questions that regulated navigation. Students can debate with their pairs, and their answers provide them with personalized feedback information on their skills. The use of the resource was analysed from the registry of the Moodle-virtual campus, and the students’ opinions by a survey answered at the end of the sessions. This task represents 5% of the final grade, although 2 more lessons are planned for next year.

The registry showed that students completed the task in 55 minutes (from 45 min, fast learners, to 70 min, slow learners); obtaining high grades (mean: 8.0 points of 10, range: 6.0 - 9.3) that correlate positively with the global average grade of other 6 collaborative activities (r=0.76; N=40), but not with the final grade (r=0.23; N=40) which included laboratory sessions and a theoretical exam.

The results of students’ survey are very positive, with enthusiastic comments. Most (83%) would be willing to do more, and only 3% did not like to repeat the experience. Many students conformed that the results in the Lesson woul be part of their final grade, and they agreed that questions were adequately graded. Among the most positive aspects, they signalled it is a dynamic tool, entertaining, visual and didactic. Among the negative aspects: visual design is simple; there are some ambiguous questions; and, in some questions, choosing a bad option was not explicitly explained why that answer is wrong.

The teachers conclude that some ambiguous questions (from the students’ point of view) could be easily rearranged next year, and agree that knowing the right answers and the reasons of misconceptions should improve student self-learning process using a Lesson. All are satisfied with the results obtained by the students and think that this tool is very useful to assess in a fast manner the progress and knowledge acquisition. They highlighted the interaction that the Lesson promoted among students, and its effectiveness to inform students about how to solve real problems. [Granted by Redice14-1342]

Keywords:

PBL, Moodle Lesson, skills-centered learning, student survey, teacher assessment.