Abstract:

According to the rules established in the Bologna Declaration for European Universities, self-learning is an essential ability that both teachers and alumni have to face (EU, 1999). The increasing improvement of the new Information Technologies (IT), and specifically the use of Internet in the educational scope (Dos Santos and Wright, 2001), promotes among lecturing staff the introduction of a virtual element in the development of the subjects (Badia, 2006). Therefore, with the purpose of facing this educational challenge, the current study highlights how important is the elaboration of a web page through which students can get information about companies’ environmental impacts and their financial and economic data (return on equity, return on assets, profits, cash flow).

Nowadays, there is a clear lack of information about companies’ information related to environmental and financial aspects in the educational scope. Therefore, it is necessary the creation of new databases that include all of these aspects in order to include them in the analysis and resolution of problems. With these new resources and through the construction of an online available web page, students will be able to obtain relevant information and apply the theoretical knowledge to real case studies (Liponen and Lallimo, 2004). Furthermore, this fact contributes to the generation of capabilities which reinforce the discussion and arguing abilities in the university people’s thinking (Rubens, Emans, Leinonen, Skarmeta and Simons, 2005)

The current study is the result of the implementation of an educational innovation project granted by the University of Granada which is called “Application of Environmental and Financial Databases to the Teaching Method”. Two are the main objectives of this research project. Firstly, it contributes to increase the students’ understanding so that they can make use of a group of environmental and financial variables and analyse real data at the firm-level. Second, it contributes to undertake different types of activities that reinforce the students’ dynamic learning through the analysis of environmental, human resources and financial situations (Ligorio and Veermans, 2005). Combining prior aims, the principal result of the project is the elaboration of a web page that contains several databases with environmental, financial and economic information.

References:

Badia, A. (2006). “Ayudar a aprender con tecnologías de la información”. In Antoni Badia (Coord): Enseñanza y aprendizaje con IT en la educación superior. Revista de Universidad y Sociedad del Conocimiento, 3 (2). UOC.
Dos Santos, B. L.; Wright, A. L. (2001). “Internet-supported management education”. Information Services & Use, 3(1) 53-64.
EU, European Union (1999): The Bologna Declaration of 19 June 1999: Joint declaration of the European Ministers of Education
Ligorio, B.; Veermans, M. (2005): “Perspectives and patterns in developing and implementing web-based technology”. Computers & Education, 45(3), 271-275.
Lipponen, L.; Lallimo, J. (2004): “Form collaborative technology to collaborative use of technology. Designing learning oriented infrastructures”. Educational Media International, 41(2), 111-116.
Rubens, W.; Emans, B.; Leinonen, T.; Skarmeta, A.G.; Simons, R.J. (2005) “Design of web-based collaborative learning environments. Translating the pedagogical learning principles to human computer interface”. Computers & Education, 45(3), 276-294.

Keywords:

teaching method, innovation, self-learning.