1ST ON-LINE CONFERENCE OF EVOLUTIONARY GENETICS: A NEW ON-LINE TEACHING ACTIVITY

Motivation activities, such as talks or training sessions are usually considered as successful teaching strategies. In the present scenario of higher education, with a very limited number of contact hours available, these activities can be difficult to fit into a course as they are extremely time-consuming.
We present an alternative motivation activity, less time-consuming than traditional talks or conferences. We believe these activities help to develop some transversal skills (oral expression, working in groups, ability to innovate, creativity...) in an on-line scenario. Online activities could be a new experience for students and these could be a good way to move traditional classroom activities into an online environment.
With this aim, we have organized an online-conference in which students present the results of a literature review or a small research project, simulating a real Scientific Congress in the sense that they have to conform to rules of style and a limited time. The students upload a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation (or similar) in which they include an audio file with their oral presentation. All the conferences are available on-line to be downloaded and evaluated by other students by using a rubric. This strategy helps them to be critical with their classmate, and to focus in the most common errors they use to make in oral presentations.