ANALYSIS OF THE MODEL OF CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT IN THE FRAME OF THE EUROPEAN HIGHER EDUCATION AREA: PRELIMINARY RESULTS IN SUBJECTS OF APPLIED ECONOMY

The adjustment of the university studies to the frame established in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) has resulted in a reformulation of the educational methodologies used and of the forms of the students´ assessment.

The aim of the new assessment systems should be, not only testing knowledge, as it has traditionally been, but also making possible to assess the development of the skills being acquired by students.

To this end, a model of continuous assessment is established to allow the teacher to follow periodically and continuously student´s results and their progress.

Continuous assessment allows the teacher to realize, as the academic year advances, the difficulties students come across with and so he is therefore able to reorient the method of education, at least towards students that are not achieving the objectives.

From the point of view of the student, continuous assessment encourages working regularly and effort cannot be postponed in time.

With the intention of adapting the educational guides of the degree studies to the requirements set by EHEA, the teachers presenting this communication have for our part adapted the assessment methods used for assessing the different subjects of applied economy taught in a number of courses.

First of all, our target is to describe the method of assessment used in the different subjects that are to be considered as given by the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, where the studies are held.

Secondly, we gather a few preliminary results derived from the experience of the academic courses 2010-2011.

In the third and last place, we will try to provide an evaluation, indicating the main advantages and the disadvantages that have been discovered.

Although we are dealing with a short-experience matter, our hope is these first results will make possible to progress in the definition of a dynamic model nature.