DIGITAL LIBRARY
B-LEARNING EXPERIENCE IN HIGHER EDUCATION: STRENGHT AND WEAKNESS
FAPE- Universidad Nacional de la Plata Argentina (ARGENTINA)
About this paper:
Appears in: EDULEARN12 Proceedings
Publication year: 2012
Pages: 6727-6729
ISBN: 978-84-695-3491-5
ISSN: 2340-1117
Conference name: 4th International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies
Dates: 2-4 July, 2012
Location: Barcelona, Spain
Abstract:
The beginning of any study, mainly if it is at university level, promotes an amount of anxiety that involves special mechanisms to be able to face it.
Nowadays we find ourselves immersed in a world where the informatics and communicational technologies confront us to a constant challenge, to the greatest extent in the college map.

Within this background, in the nursing career dependent from the Fundación Argentina para el Progreso de la Enfermería (FAPE) joined to the Universidad Nacional de la Plata (UNLP), a bimodal formation (B-learning) was developed, where a face modality cohabit through a virtual platform. On the whole, on the one hand, this modality allows us a more rational usage of the time that students have available to delve deeply in the programmatic contents. On the other hand, it contributes to self determination in students that grants a more critical and reflexive attitude in the face meetings. This academic formation design includes on-line and classroom activities that are pedagogically structured so as to furnish the expected learning. We know that one of the principal characteristics is: technical and teaching methods diversity.
In a combined learning we can find for example: synchronous classroom activities (face to face meetings, cabinets, field study, etc.) activities in a synchronous line (chats, virtual meetings, etc.) and besides, asynchronous activities (forum of discussion, digital contents, etc.).

Now firstly, the average age of the student’s population that enters the nursing career is above the habitual rate of the entering students to other university careers. Secondly, the 80 percent of the students are workers in the health system. These students’ inherent characteristics face us to an even greater challenge: a high percentage of students are not digital natives, thus we are compelled to work out defined strategies for the optimum usage of the informatic and communicational technologies tools.
Within these settings, the management of the career has purposed the development of specific strategies for the educational potential development of specific strategies for the educational potential optimization of the b-learning modality. We keep in mind that:
a) There are still fissures between young people and adults that hamper the access of professors to the combined learning.
b) In some cases it may happen that not all the students have the access to the needed equipment.
c) There are few strategies to motivate the students.

Our combined learning purpose has been set up in different stages where the commitment of all the educational actors was fused for the development of an improved quality of the student learning.
If we think in all the actors involved in this stage, the new characteristics that students, professors and institution will assume, will unavoidably lead us to a redefinition of the curricula designs in the environment of a new pedagogic context.
Keywords:
b-learning, education, autonomy, virtual platform.