Abstract:

The European Higher Education Area (EHEA) has demanded the adaptation of the university curriculum to the requirements stated in the Bologna Declaration. Since the 2009 – 2010 academic year, Rey Juan Carlos University offers bachelor degrees. In order to diversify its supply and adapt it to the new claims of the demand, it also offers, for certain courses, on-line bachelor degrees.
The methodology offered by the On-line University offers advantages for a certain group of students: face-to-face assistance is not required, professors and students don’t have to meet in a certain place or time, the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) as a learning tool, and in short, it provides the flexibility which some students in circumstances that prevent them from going to class need to take a university course.
We should also bring forward the most significant limitations of e-learning: both professors and students have to adapt themselves to new learning methods to temper the basic inconvenient of on-line education, which is school dropout. In this sense, teaching quality and personalized support to students are crucial aspects so the On-line University can work efficiently.
The goal of this project is to offer a description of the experience the Rey Juan Carlos University has in the on-line teaching area and, more specifically, to analyse the results obtained in the “Economía Política I” subject, from the Political Science Bachelor Degree.
We are backed by the teaching experience of the last three years, from the 2009 – 2010 academic year to today. We will firstly describe a previous essay on blended learning, used in a subject of similar characteristics that was the previous to the one in the on-line program. Next, we will focus on the training provided to professors, the technical help provided by the University to transform the subject in an on-line course and, basically, the use students make of the platform and the results achieved.
Based on the general experience of this University and on the performance of our teaching work, in this study we will analyse the main results obtained. The goal is to rate the success of the Program, as well as to bring forward the points that have carried a specific difficulty in the development of the on-line learning.

Keywords:

Virtual Universities, on-line university, European Higher Education Area, e-learning.