Abstract:

Monographic research pertains to documentary exploration centered on innovation within the food sector. A monograph involves the detailed development of a piece of work focused on a specific, well-defined topic. It constitutes a research approach rooted in a scientific and systematic methodology involving investigation, data collection, organization, interpretation, and analysis concerning a designated subject matter. The pursuit of information in this context can take two distinct approaches. The first one is more open-ended, where students are presented with a topic title and have to research relevant information to develop the work. The alternative approach is more restrictive, involving the provision of a scientific publication from a journal that directly addresses the precise subject matter of the work.

The aim of this study was to compare two methodologies for developing a monographic work by analyzing student satisfaction and the grades obtained. For this purpose, in the subject “Technology of Cereal-Derived Products and Alcoholic Beverages” in the fourth course of the degree of Food Science and Technology of the Burgos University, two monographic research were proposed. In the first one, a more open and flexible methodology was employed, requiring students to develop a topic of innovation in alcoholic beverages based on the assigned product. In the second project, a more restrictive methodology was applied, with students developing a topic of innovation in cereal-derived products based on a scientific article.

The results obtained revealed that the methodology where students have to search for information was more liked, despite being considered more difficult because they encountered problems in searching for information. On the other hand, no significant differences were found in the grades obtained in both assignments, and students stated that they worked on all the competencies of the subject with both methodologies. Therefore, both methodologies could be considered suitable for the development of works based on monographic research. However, improvement actions could be implemented to increase student satisfaction. For the methodology where students have to search for information, as the main difficulty for they was that information search, the improvement action would be to provide them with some keywords for that search. To enhance the methodology using scientific publication, a key aspect would be selecting a publication that better fits the topic they are required to develop.

In conclusion, the results obtained in the present study demonstrate the effectiveness of both methodologies examined to develop a work about a monographic research.

Keywords:

Higher education, Food Science and Technology, monographic research, scientific article.