Abstract:

During the 2019-2020 academic year, teaching at Universitat Jaume I was undertaken in a blended online/in-person format. In the case of the “Personality, Assessment, and Teaching during Childhood” subject, it was decided that theory would be taught in person, whereas the practice sessions would be taught online. To this end, the practice sessions were re-designed through the use of the Genially platform and the H5P module from the Virtual Classroom (VC).

Specifically, two infographics were designed employing Genially, where all the material was provided (i.e., visualizing a case, assessment tool, and scales), as well as the steps necessary to undertake an assessment of development and another assessment of temperament.

Two interactive videos were created using the H5P on parental education styles and the use of board games to stimulate different cognitive aptitudes from the Cattell-Horn-Carroll model in children, where different self-test questions were embedded. Finally, two “Fill in the blanks” activities from the H5P module were created to work on two clinical cases. The scores obtained on all H5P activities were registered in the VC grades, whereas for the Genially activities, a report was handed in which was manually corrected by the lecturers.

The subject had 45 matriculated students. Their level of satisfaction with the methodology was assessed (e.g., “the format was attractive”, “I have learned”, “they have helped me consolidate the lessons from the theory classes”) in a 5-point scale (from 1 = Completely disagree to 5 = Completely agree). Mean scores between 4.23 (S.D. = 1.19) and 4.62 (SD = 0.84) were obtained on the different items. The correlation between the scores obtained in the online practices and the theory classes was .40 (p < .05) whereas, when the average grade on the academic record was controlled for, it was only slightly lowered to .36 (p < .05).

These results point toward the utility and student enjoyment of the format employed for the practices, in the process of learning the different topics of the subject. Also, the fact that the correlation between the practice grades and the theory exam remained when the mean academic grade was controlled for (closely linked to motivation and intelligence), suggests that the relationship between both scores could be due, in part, to the methodology employed.

Keywords:

Remote learning, practice sessions, psychology, H5P.