EXPERIENCE OF E-LEARNING IMPLEMENTATION DURING THE ECTS TRANSITION: A CASE OF UNDERGRADUATE BUSINESS COURSES AT A SPANISH UNIVERSITY

The utilization of new technology in university teaching is increasingly important. In this study, especially during the ECTS transition period. We report the results from the observations when (1) PC portal’s chat and group services, and (2) Moodle were implemented at three different periods. The courses taught are (1) Marketing research (Bachelor in Marketing Research Techniques), (2) Advertising techniques (Diploma in Tourism), and (3) Business Economics (Double Major in Law and Business Administration). Our qualitative observations from 2003 to 2010 indicate that the level of utilization of interactive tools was influenced by various factors, including home online environment, temporal flexibility in study, word-of-mouth among peers, and basic study motivation. Sporadic and voluntary usage of PC portal’s chat and group services were effective only when the students were somewhat forced to interact with the instructor or exhibited urgent and specific needs. On the other hand, Moodle was accepted as a complementary tool of regular lectures and especially useful during the ECTS transition to increase the productivity of continuous evaluation/learning. The author describes longitudinal data during one pre-ETCS (2003) and two post-ETCS (2007 and 2010) teaching experiences.