ON-LINE ASSESSMENTS ON PHYSICS FOR BIOLOGY STUDENTS: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS BETWEEN CONVENTIONAL AND ECTS GROUPS AT THE “UNIVERSIDAD DE VALENCIA”

Since 2003, the “Universitat de València” (UV) (www.uv.es) is involved in European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) experiences, favouring innovations and improvements in the learning process in an environment of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). Between them, the “Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas” has developed an innovation project in an experimental group where teaching of Physics has been made with different learning activities at classroom and on-line assessments. The object of assessment in the educational process is not only the knowledge, but also the promotion of the habit of study and the enhancing of the problem-solving skills of the student. The students of the innovation project group have a positive attitude because they enlisted voluntarily in this experimental group, obtaining good grades. However there is an awful feeling that this experience can not be exported to conventional groups. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the results of introducing in conventional groups of biology students some of the physics assessment activities developed in the ECTS group, concretely multiple choice quizzes. A comparative analysis is made between the different groups and in respect of the results of previous academic years.