Abstract:

European Higher Education Area demands a change in the common educational practice that teachers have been performing for many years. They have been asked to establish new teaching methods, based on not only attending to lectures but also on active student participation, and new assessment methods which should be based on the effort done by the student. This piece of work is part of the University of Cádiz roadmap towards European Higher Education Area.

This paper carries out a new methodology for teaching mathematics. In particular, the experiment has been applied to the first year students of the Chemistry Degree of the Faculty of Science (University of Cádiz). However it could easily be carried out to every technical graduation. This experiment continues the previous studies [1,2,3].

The mathematical notions are very important to these students due to the need to be used in other specific subjects of Chemistry. In addition, it provides students a fundamental capacity for abstraction.

In [1] the initial mathematical level of the new students, who did not have good results in a preliminary exam, was increased only using the tools provided by Moodle. In [2], the authors complemented the usual classes and other activities with the use of the tools of Moodle. One important consequence is that the students with a good qualification in the exercises proposed in Moodle, passed the subject. In [3] both mechanisms were taken into account at the same time and the results and several interesting consequences were analysed.

This paper breaks the previous procedure and proposes a new methodology in order to increase the final level of the students. After the experiment we assert that a more successful procedure is introduced.

As previously, a level test was carried out at the beginning of the academic year, dealing with the knowledge the students should have gained over their secondary education. Students, who obtained an unsatisfactory mark in the initial level test, were suggested to answer some extra questionnaires in Moodle.

During the academic year, a number of tests have been proposed for every student to solve (these tests form the 5% of the final mark of February). Moreover, students were suggested to do some computer activities using the software Maxima. This activity takes into account with a 10% of the final mark of the subject.

As it was done years before, students have done three written partial exams. However, the qualifications were different (the three exams do not have the same weight) and those students who reach an average mark of 4 points out of 8 did not need to do the final February exam.
The specific context, developed activities, numerical results and conclusions will be introduced in an extended paper in order to evaluate the new positive experience, as well as possible improvement to be made in future projects.

References:
[1] Medina-Moreno, J., García-Andrades, J. (2013) University Students Learn Mathematics with MOODLE. Edulearn 13, 5th International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies. Barcelona.
[2] Medina-Moreno, J. (2012). E-learning con MOODLE para alumnos de matemáticas. I Congreso Virtual Internacional sobre Innovación Pedagógica y Praxis Educativa (INNOVAGOGIA 2012), pp. 840-845
[3] Cornejo-Piñero, M.E., Medina-Moreno, J., Ramírez-Poussa, E. (2011) Las matemáticas de los alumnos de nuevo ingreso. II Congreso Internacional: Uso y buenas prácticas con TIC. Málaga.

Keywords:

Teaching innovation, Moodle, mathematics, e-learning.