SHARING SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE ACROSS THE ATLANTIC: A TEACHING EXPERIENCE BETWEEN SPAIN AND LATIN AMERICA

The growing convergence of computing, electronics and communications has led in recent years to a global Information Society. Nowadays, there is a clear consensus on the importance of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to facilitate the economic and social progress of a country.

Importantly, the use of ICT does not only enhance learning, but allows to transform the teaching and increases the number of teaching courses available in parallel with the more traditional education. At present, we can relax the contents and structure of our courses through new educational platforms provided by multiple web sites.

A phenomenon that has received a significant boost in recent years is the development of MOOCs (Massive Online Open Courses). The MOOCs integrate the social network connectivity, the availability of an expert in the field of study of recognized prestige, and a collection of open access resources from the internet. The most important of a MOOC is that it relies on the active participation of a large number of students (up to the thousands) who organize their own participation depending on their own learning goals, their prior knowledge and skills, or the existence of common interests with other students.

This paper starts from the premise that key factors such as the increasing complexity of ICT and its role as a tool for education and training involve the need to expand the boundaries of the traditional university, fostering cooperation between teachers of different schools. Thus, we present an updated report on the current situation (regarding the contents and teaching methods) in different Spanish and Latin American universities for the specific case of the teaching of Genetics and Evolution. In addition, we will discuss the possibilities of establishing a transnational teaching group for the development of an 'online' course with shared materials and using a new platform called 'MiriadaX'.