Abstract:

In this paper we present the results of a teaching innovation project developed at the University of Jaen. This project aims to perform a global analysis of students, as well as telecommunication degrees to find the causes of the low student entry rates and the low motivation detected in those student. Low motivation is assumed as one of the main causes of academic failure that normally leads to abandonment. So, analysing these causes, together with the dropouts, it is intended to put all possible means to correct these problems, encourage general motivation in the studies, which will not only decrease dropouts, but increase learning outcomes. This task is complex, since there have been many studies on what causes the abandonment of students, hence the interest of this project.

Given that the main problems have been detected in the first two years of the degrees in Telematics Engineering and Telecommunications Technology Engineering, the project was scheduled in two years to be able to monitor the new students during this period.

In order to achieve the objectives of this project, different surveys have been conducted to the students, at the beginning and at the end of each semester. Surveys cover different aspects about the socio-economic environment of the student and several questions designed using a Likert scale to find out motivations, academic background, early perceptions about studies, difficulties found, etc.

Therefore, an attempt will be made to detect the reasons why students choose Telecommunications degrees at the Polytechnic University School of the University of Jaen in Linares, as well as their main professional aspirations, socio-cultural environment, academic motivations and prior knowledge of the various subjects taught by the Telecommunication Engineering Department of the University of Jaen. In addition, this project is intended to analyse the evolution of students throughout the academic year in order to detect possible causes of abandonment or demotivation, gaps in the curricula, failures of coordination between subjects and any other possible causes of demotivation.

Preliminary results show that there are mainly two incoming student profiles: upper secondary education and upper-level training cycles. In the first group, the students have a high level of mathematics and other basic subjects useful in engineering studies like physics, but they lack of applied skills like electronics, e.g. On the other side, the students from upper-level training cycles have low knowledge about basic subjects but they are really good in practical skills.

In order to solve these problems, at the beginning of the first course of the degree of Telecommunications engineering, a sort of incoming courses, called “zero courses”, are offered to overcome the lack of knowledge of the students. Moreover, the Telecommunication Engineering Department has organized several coordination meetings with the Mathematics Department to tune teaching contents to emphasize those aspects more specifics for telecommunication engineering to deal with some difficulties noted in the surveys by the students.

Keywords:

Teaching innovation, survey, telecommunication student, motivation.