VIRTUAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS AS A TEACHING SUPPORT TOOL IN THE CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT PROCESS

The widespread use of a continuous evaluation methodology in the first year of a university course today poses many problems and challenges. The high number of students and, therefore, of teachers involved in the training, coordination and planning of activities and the sharing of a series of education evaluation criteria are a few of them. In this sense, the advantages of the use of a virtual learning environment are undeniable: this tool allows to develop a set of continuous assessment tests for courses with large number of students such as those in the first year of a engineering degree, moreover it allows a detailed and immediate monitoring of the student by the teacher, devoting a reasonable number of resources and effort to this task.
During the last academic year, we used a virtual learning environment in the teaching of two four-monthly subjects: Physics I and Physics II, of the first year in the aeronautical engineering school. While new students received their normal lessons in the classroom, repeat students received only a small number of them, taught in a similar way to tutorial classes. The online and classroom activities through the virtual environment were identical for both types of students. Thus, the methodology of repeat students was closer to an e-learning methodology. This approach based on the use of a learning management system was optional for students. Therefore, some of them opted to follow a traditional method without evaluated activities, and therefore, preferring an only evaluation. In this work, we present the results obtained in this experience and the satisfaction expressed by students about it.