Abstract:

Society has undergone great changes since the introduction in our lives of technology and according to this trend, the university has had to adapt to a new environment in which the construction of knowledge and the development of transversal and specific skills are demanded. It was demonstrated that not all graduates had acquired certain skills or abilities after their university period. The skills had not been worked or evaluated during the different courses, and this situation should be corrected. Universitat Politècnica de Valencia has developed an institutional project of application of skills that must be implemented in all courses given. The objective is to improve the student development in order to obtain an integral and complete training for the future professionals. However, several problems were observed during the implementation of generic skills. One of them was the lack of time and training on the professor staff, and another was the absence of evidences to demonstrate the acquisition of skills. For this reason, a multidisciplinary group for university learning (GRIPAU) decided to develop this project. The main goal was to develop an institutional model or template to work and evaluate transversal skills through a 3.0 environment (Lessons, in any course given at the university and of any size.

The experience has been prepared with the use of the Lessons tool (SAKAI) which works as a content sequencer. The proposed template was divided in three sections:
i) Introduction, where an overview of generic skills was exposed, and the students had to answer a simple test about their skill level,
ii) activity development, where the task designed to work the generic skill was explained. Before that action, the evaluation rubric was showed,
iii) the evaluation, where the professor made the correction of the task and generated a feedback to the students.

They could test the real level of generic skills comparing the obtained outcomes with the results of the initial self-assessment test. This model has been applied to 730 students who belong to 11 subjects of different grades. 13 generic skills have been worked out: Understanding and integration; application and practical thinking; analysis and problem solving; innovation; creativity and entrepreneurship; design and Project; teamwork and leadership; ethical, environmental and professional responsibility; effective communication; critical thinking; time planning and management; lifelong learning; knowledge of contemporary problems and specific tools. According to the main outcomes, 77.57% of the students knew how to work and develop the skill, whereas 22.41% had not heard anything of such skill. In addition, more than 65% of students highlighted the capacity of Lessons as a content sequencer, and as a way to develop the skill. As a general conclusion, we can affirm that the application of Lessons has facilitated the work and evaluation of the skill, and a multidisciplinary character was added to the template due to the vision of 8 professors of different subjects and knowledge areas.

Keywords:

Lessons, Sakai, generic skill, transversal skill.