Abstract:

New learning model in which the student should be more autonomous emerged during the convergence process of Bologna to the Higher Education Area of Europe (HEAE). This has led to a more dynamic teaching model in which tutoring plays a prominent role. The professor not only being a transmitter of knowledge but also becoming a mentor. Thus teacher guides the student in his formative itinerary, mainly academic, but also professional and personal, facilitating the student "learns by building".

However, the use of tutoring service by the student still remains low. This leads to a search for new resources that increase the attendance to tutoring/mentoring services, while facilitating the performance of teacher tutorial action.

Web environments and ICT allow the implementation of teaching-learning tools that include communication interfaces among users. As regards, the Moodle platform is increasingly approaching this new model of educational system, being one of the most developed telematics platform in academic context.

The main objective of the work has been to improve the service of tutoring, to encourage students to use it, and to optimize the teacher's time. A plug-in which runs in Moodle has been implemented in two Spanish universities to reach this goal. This plug-in is based on a previous software called “Tutorial Action” developed by The Educational Research Group “TutorialAction” from the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM). The effectivity of this software has already tested with students from UPM, although a compatible version of e-tutoring implemented in Moodle has not been validated until present work.

Engineering degrees from two Spanish universities, (University of Extremadura (UEx) and UPM), participated in this work during the 2015-16 academic year. Around 150 students and 10 professors were registered in the application. Surveys of satisfaction of the tutoring service were also performed before and after the implementation of the e-tutoring system for its validation.

As a results, the students who used the application highlighted its usefulness and its easy drive. A large part also indicated that the tool allowed them to save time for the study. Likewise they stated that the reservation system gave them assurance that the tutoring was going to take place, encouraging them to use more this service. On the other hand, teachers also stressed the easy drive of the e-tutoring system, and the optimization of their time. Likewise, the use of reservations allowed them to know the reason of the student's consultation, which facilitated the previous preparation of the contents of each tutoring session.

The extrapolation of this plug-in to other university communities would be useful for testing and improving the potential of e-tutoring in Moodle.

Keywords:

E-tutoring, Higher Education Area, Moodle.