MATHEMATHICS WITH B-LEARNING

Currently the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in education has transformed the teaching-learning process, giving several and innovative proposals that go hand by hand with students’ growing needs. This research took place motivated to discover and test new possibilities and instruction modes that enrich the educational process. Based on new technology, long distance education is having more acceptance in different Mexican universities, thus becoming a fertile field for research to determine its effectiveness in students’ learning process.

Researches on long distance education in mathematics specifies that the interaction between teacher-student and student-student is a fundamental part of the educational practice in this modality (Farfán and Sánchez, 2005).

Teacher, student, the object of knowledge and the objectives of teaching are the elements of any educational practice, but it is the interaction between them that determines that practice. Interaction is then the intrinsic element of any educational environment’s effectiveness; in long distance education it is the core component of any instructional strategy, (Montiel, 2002).

The present research aims to demonstrate students’ level of acceptance and achievement who studied Differential Calculus at Universidad Autónoma de Baja California (UABC) School of Engineering (Mexico) applying blended learning, using Blackboard’s platform and its different tools. Two groups of students were chosen, one experimental group and one control group, all of them incoming Differential Calculus students at that time. The experimental group, composed of 35 students was named group D, who took the class in the b-learning modality. The control group composed of 100 students in 3 separate groups A, B and C, attended the classic classroom mode throughout the course.

The research conclusions were obtained from group D students’ experiences, who faced a completely different scenario from the usual one. And as well as from the results obtained by the teacher comparing achievement levels of between group D and students in groups A, B and C.