Abstract:

The delivery of new degree courses at the university means that subjects are designed so that students will spend a certain period of study, according to the credits which are assigned. The course Digital Circuits and Systems, which is taught in the first semester of second year degrees of Telecommunication Systems and Telematics Engineering at the EETAC (Escola d’Enginyeria de Telecomunicació i Aeronàutica de Castelldefels), has 6 ECTS, equivalent to about 150 hours of student’s work.

In this paper we discuss the results that we have observed after having surveyed weekly (for a period of 14 weeks) the time devoted by the students to the subject. It includes presential class time, cooperative work time outside the classroom and individual work time outside the classroom. This experience has been applied to 40 students in the spring semester of 2012.

The development of this subject consists on applying PBL and cooperative techniques, which permit that students solve several complex problems around digital systems, while the teacher acts as a guide of the learning process.

After comparing the time spent respect to the overall performance obtained in the course by the students, we can conclude that, with few exceptions, there is a correlation between these variables, using both, parametric and non parametric statistical analysis.

The paper includes a list of recommendations to be taken into account in the design and planification of the exercises that have been solved during the course, in order to improve the study efficiency.

Keywords:

Project Based learning, cooperative work, academic performance, continuous assessment.