Abstract:

During the course 2016-2017, University of Alicante has launched the first edition of the Master's Degree in Color Technology for the Automotive Sector (ColTAS). The purpose of ColTAS Master is to provide a comprehensive training in the multidisciplinary study of Color Science and Technology from a global perspective. Therefore, different real or simulated problems about color and special-effect pigment are presented to students with the aim to reach a completely knowledge at a theoretical and practical level in response to the socio-economic demand.

The course is offered in blended learning (b-learning) by Moodle platform (http://si.ua.es/moodle) where the theoretical content and activities are presented. In addition, the course has a specific face-to-face workshop with training sessions from different companies (developer of specific instrumentation, pigments, etc) and invited seminars by academic and industrial experts. In this way, students are able to achieve and complete their inter and multidisciplinary training offered by the course.

The methodology is based on an adaptive learning methodology by combining b-learning and flipped classroom. Therefore, in this work, it is shown the methodology implemented in this course focused on individual and group activities adapted to the student profile taking into account the learning styles defined by Kolb and the behavior styles of students (Platinum behavior style). Furthermore, their initial competencies and their motivation and availability are also considered with the aim to obtain the maximum rendering and satisfaction from students. In particular, different activities were designed associated with each lesson. These activities are divided into three level of participation: basic, medium and high. The idea is to increase the student’s motivation by the gamification learning since student (gamers) voluntarily decide or control the level of participation, dedication (playing) hours, etc. according to their objectives: in a short term, to pass a test or in a medium and long way, to go in depth in the subject. On the other hand, the group activities allow to combine students with different learning and behavior styles, in this way, the groups are optimized to reach the maximum results. Finally, the forum participation is also considered (from students and teachers) to get an active role with an immediate feedback, other important game element.

The first analysis of the results shows a great student satisfaction. Their participation during the course was active with high participation in the forum and also, by showing a great interest and motivations since most of them completed the three levels of participation in the different activities. Therefore, after this first course, the evaluation of the results obtained by means of this learning methodology will allow us to recover useful data to improve this methodology for next editions in order to propose a inter and multidisciplinary one-year postgraduate course inside the European Area of Higher Education.

Keywords:

b-learning, flipped classroom, learning and behavior styles, adaptive learning gamification.