Abstract:

The establishment of the European Space of Higher Education has involved a change in the modes of learning and teaching. Faced with exclusive lectures, new pedagogical strategies based on active participation of students and new assessment methods based on their efforts are sought. We try to develop a methodology of this type in a Mathematics course with the help of new information and communication technologies.

This analysis, which is carried out with first year students of the Chemistry Degree of the Faculty of Science in the University of Cadiz, continues the previous studies [1,2,3,4]. The developed experiments can also be accomplished for every technical graduation. Note that Mathematics contents are important for these students, due to the capacity for abstraction they provide with.

In the previous 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 an 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 the preliminary exam, is increased only using Moodle. In [3], the authors complement the usual classes with the use of the tools of Moodle. 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.

The current paper continues in the same line of work and analyses the results achieved by Chemistry students when they perform several activities in a virtual Moodle course [5]. Such activities complement teaching classes and written exams. The correlation of e-learning tools with the final results of the students is very satisfactory. On the other hand, we have designed a new qualification system to continuously evaluate the work of students. Subject Tests (with weighting of 10% from total mark), Computer Activities (weight: 10%) and three written exams (weight: 80%) are the developed activities.

In addition, 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. We have also made a comparison between the marks of students and their level of attendance. It is important that students attend classes in order to successfully achieve the required knowledge.

Next, developed activities will be detailed, and numerical results and conclusions will be presented to evaluate the experience.

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 (INNOVAGOGIA 2012), 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 learning.