TWO EXAMPLES OF THE USE OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIVE TECHNOLOGIES (ICT) IN UNIVERSITY TEACHING: VIRTUAL CAMPUS AND ELECTRONIC TUTOR SESSION

The process of adapting to the European Higher Education Area has meant an important and revolutionary change in the university teaching sphere. Consequently, this change has had a great influence on the methodological teaching per se as well as on the use of Information and Communicative Technologies (ICT) in higher education.

When it comes to the design of the undergraduate and graduate studies in the so-called European Higher Education Area, a student is not a mere passive subject anymore. Instead, students have adopted a very active role in their learning process and, therefore, the use of ICT has become a necessary teaching tool in this new context. In other words, the use of ICT in higher education has contributed to the drastic change in the methodological teaching in universities and has made the interaction between students and the didactic process possible, especially by means of the Internet.

The change in the methodological teaching at the University of Murcia has been possible thanks to the common use of a virtual campus by both students and professors. The virtual campus of the University of Murcia is known as “SUMA,” and has played a very important role in the use of ICT as a teaching tool for on-site and online students. SUMA has a wide variety of applications that enhances the learning process and contributes to a better interaction between students and the teaching process (forum discussions, chats, notice boards, folders with students’ contents, etc.). Together with this, the electronic tutor session project is also available.

The purpose of the present communication is to spread out the results of an investigation, which has been carried out by professors from the University of Murcia, about how the virtual campus and the electronic tutor session work, and to analyze the pros and cons of these teaching tools as well as the faculty and students’ evaluations. Finally, some conclusions and proposals for improvement of the use of ICT in education in general and in virtual campus and electronic tutor session in particular will be provided.