Abstract:

This paper presents the experiences of an educational innovation project which has been promoted by associate professors of the Telecommunications Engineering Department, University of Jaen (Spain). Also, an external institution called “Colegio Oficial de Ingenieros de Telecomunicación” (COIT) has participated.

In 2008 the COIT created the academic VISATel® initiative within the universities so the students of the Master Telecommunication Engineering can gain a better understanding (via contributing to specific projects) of the above stated activities and in turn their technical certificate.

The initiative consists of allowing the students to obtain a technical certificate of a project elaborated in a core course called Projects, following a procedure similar to which already carry out the professionals with the signature and technical certificate of their projects. As well, by carrying out this activity the students would then be able to gain their respective technical certificates of the project developed as their MSc. thesis. In this way the initiative aims to present the respective student with the professional activities carried out by a typical Telecommunications Engineer.

The project has been a success as all the students who participated gained the knowledge of what procedures to follow in order to acquire the technical certificate of the professional projects of the Telecommunication Engineers and in doing so became more familiar with the platform used.

Keywords:

Educational innovation, Information and Communications Technologies.