AN END-OF-DEGREE PROJECT DIRECTED BY USING VIRTUAL TUTORIALS WITH ADOBE CONNECT

One of the main objectives of the European Higher Education Area, recently introduced at European Universities, is the free movement of the members of the university community (professors and students) between the countries of the European Union. In order to achieve this goal, many different collaboration agreements between European universities have been signed to permit the students to sign up for some degree subjects in a foreign university. There are also mobility programmes for professors, fellowships, etc.

In addition, the implementation of European Higher Education Area and the consequent introduction of the new degrees and masters caused a significant change in the existing teaching-learning method, since now it is focused on the autonomous student work. Traditional master class is substituted by a participatory one, in which professor not only exposes the contents but also promotes that the students carry out exercises, problems, comprehension activities, research works, etc., self-sufficiently and autonomously, but directed by the teacher. Moreover, one of the subjects that students must pass to complete any degree or master, consists of carrying out a final research work about any matter related with the contents studied, in an autonomous manner, and under the direction of the teacher proposing that work.

If we join both previous considerations together, the problem we must face frequently during the direction of this end-of degree project consists of that the students stay for a long period in another country under some mobility programme, but it Is necessary to maintain contact with them during this period, in order to carry out correctly the work. In this sense, it is indispensable to have a computer tool that supplies the distance and permits teacher-student fluid communication.

In this article we expose some of the important properties of Adobe Connect virtual classroom to direct an end-of-degree work in a completely virtual way.