METHODOLOGIES AND MULTIDISCIPLINARY ACTIVITIES APPLIED TO CHEMICAL ENGINEERING AND NUTRITION SUBJECTS OF THE DEGREE OF FOOD SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

The present work collects the progress of a three year project focused on the implementation of a Continuous Multidisciplinary Assessment System (CMAS) in four subjects of Chemical Engineering and Nutrition, at the three initial courses of the degree of the Food Science and Technology in the University of Burgos. The study was performed in four stages. The aim of the first stage was to assess the success rate achieved during the academic course 2012/2013 in the subjects: Chemical Engineering Fundamentals (1st course), Unit Operations in the Food Industry I (2nd course), Nutrition (3rd course) and Dietetic (3rd course). In the second step, a new Evaluation Procedure (EP) was designed in order to improve the efficiency of the students and their involvement in the learning process. Qualifying Activities (QA) were also modified using the results obtained in the previous step. The third stage was focused on the assessment of the results obtained during the years 2013/2014 and 2014/2015. A success rate over 67.8% for the year 2013/2014 and slightly lower for the year 2014/2015 was obtained. It was also observed that the QA of the EP1-“laboratory work” and EP2-“evaluation questionnaires, practical cases solution and specific reports development” were the most appreciated by the students. EP3-“final test”, corresponding to a final test related with general aspects for the acquisition of practical and theoretical competences was the limiting EP to pass these subjects.

As concluding stage, an inquiry has been elaborated and passed to the professors in charge of the subjects, to obtain: the methodological tools considered as essential to achieve the development of competences (or different skills) in these subjects, the most appreciated QA, and the EP with higher success rates. The professors’ consideration related to the time that students should be dedicate to every EP preparation, and those really dedicated and the effect of the difference on the success rates were too evaluated.

The results of the inquiry give, from the professor viewpoint, the strengths of these evaluation system and the improvement possibilities. Simultaneously, let us to obtain the EP, QA and methodologies more useful to develop each competence in the subject under study.