Abstract:

The beginning of the European Space of Higher Education involved a change in the common educational practice teachers have been performing for many years, establishing new teaching methods, based on active student participation opposite to the exclusive lectures, and new assessment methods which should be based on the effort done by the student.

This paper is a continuation of the previous studies [1,2,3,4], which are about the experiment carried out with first year students of the Chemistry Degree of the Faculty of Science (University of Cádiz). Mathematics contents are important to Chemistry students, due to the capacity for abstraction they provide with. Note that the experiments in these papers can easily be carried out to every technical graduation.

In these four papers the authors use the tools given in Moodle, such as questionnaires, lessons and forums to teach mathematics. In [1], new students who have obtained not a good result in the initial level test increase their knowledge attending to classes and doing activities and exercises using Moodle. In [2] the initial mathematical level of the new students, who did not have good results in a preliminary exam, is increased only using Moodle, without teaching classes. In [3], the authors complement the usual classes and other activities with the use of the tools of Moodle. One important consequence is that the students, which have a good qualification in the exercises proposed in Moodle, pass mathematics. In [4] Moodle tools are combined with partial exams and computer activities.

In this academic year we continue in the same line of work than last year and this paper analyses the results and several interesting consequences are obtained. Just like last year, 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. If one student does not have this basic knowledge, then the student has to invest more time than originally scheduled in the study of the subject. Moreover, several activities in a virtual Moodle course complement the teaching classes and three control exams [5]. The correlation of the e-learning tools with the final results of the students is very satisfactory. On the other hand, a new qualification system is designed to continuously evaluate the work of students.

In an extended paper the experiment will be encouraged and enshrined in its context, developed activities will be detailed, and numerical results and conclusions will be presented to evaluate the experience, as well as possible improvement to be made in future projects.

References:
[1] 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
[2] Medina-Moreno, J. (2012). E-learning con MOODLE para alumnos de matemáticas. I Congreso Virtual Internacional sobre Innovación Pedagógica y Praxis Educativa, pp. 840-845.
[3] 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.
[4] Medina-Moreno, J., García-Andrades, J., Villegas- Vallecillos, M. (2014) University Students learn Mathematics with MOODLE. Edulearn 14, 6th International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies. Barcelona.
[5] MOODLE. URL http://docs.moodle.org/24/en/Main_page

Keywords:

Teaching innovation, Moodle, mathematics e-learning, evaluation and assessment of student learning.