Abstract:

The University of Porto, like other universities around the world, is working to promote effective integration of various learning techniques. This paper describes the results of a research that aimed to find and test new technologies in teaching and learning of human nutrition in a second-cycle of studies. The goal of this project was to improve teaching of human nutrition in a large group of students (around two thousand) mixing face-to-face classes and online activities, namely, pedagogic games for stimulate learning and online assessments that truly reflects student achievements.
The course included lectures, seminars, video conference class, laboratorial classes, group work, web-based activities. This method is based on the notion that the learner constructs his or her own learning through relevant learning activities. It is student centred. Thus the teacher's job was to create a learning culture where teaching activities were chosen to achieve the desired learning outcomes for human nutrition. In face-to-face theoretical classes, students learned food composition, food safety, and diet planning for healthy individuals at different stages through a series of short lectures (24 h). Another part of the teaching was through laboratorial and practical classes (48 h) for analysis of food nutrients, additives and contaminants and diet planning according to individual needs.
Simultaneously the online component of the course was integrated with the traditional classes, and delivered in a well-known platform – Moodle. The design process of the blended-learning course combined not only the physical change to the “classroom” in order to pursue a student centered learning style, but also requires technology to support learning, especially in the virtual learning component. This technology is the backbone of overall systems that supports the entire e-learning education. The office of support for the new technologies in the education – GATIUP – supported teachers to combine a mix of old and new best practices in pedagogy, including design of online platform, videoconference classes, online formative and summative assessments, among others.
The e-learning platform contained theoretical and practical classes’ support. The web-based support was also used for delivery of pedagogic games especially created to stimulate study of nutrients distribution in foods and diet planning. These applications were developed using Visual Basic tool from Microsoft connected to a Microsoft Access database. The graphic interfaces used in the applications are very intuitive and friendly. Anyone can use the application and get results without prior trainning.
Group assignments and individual assessments were created to improve students’ learning and for evaluation of student achievements in terms of nutrition skills. Each individual assessment was made in the Faculty computer room under the supervision of teachers, and limited access to internet. Questionnaires included multiple-choice, matching and essay questions from an online item bank , covering the content of the theoretical and laboratory classes. The assignments were used to solve more complex problems in group work. Final classification resulted from competences demonstrated in individual and group work. The effectiveness of these online tools for student evaluation was demonstrated by comparison of results between this school year and previous years.

Keywords:

blended-learning, human nutrition teaching, online assessment, group assignment, serious gaming.