Abstract:

The new requirements of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) have led to the implementation of an important change in teaching methodology which has been implemented at the university so far. In this sense, the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) offer a wide range of methodological possibilities which are facilitating the implementation of these new rules of the EHEA. From this area appears what is known as e-learning, a distance learning system that integrates the use of ICT and other educational tools. The special characteristics involving in the subject "Ecophysiology", integrated into the curriculum for the Bachelor of Environmental Science at the University of Granada, convert this subject in a candidate to join to the increasing group of virtual materials of this University. "Ecophysiology" is characterized, for being a highly eligible field for students from other universities, both national and foreign. So, its virtualization would allow the creation of a bilingual Spanish-English platform which would facilitate, first the understanding and learning to students from other countries, and secondly, the access to information for those national students in a language that is the most popular in the scientific world. Another oddity of this subject is the origin of their students in academics terms. Thus, students are from Environmental Science, Biology, Chemistry, etc., being the background of these students very different. Similarly, the interest in the matter is also different according to the degree that they are studying. Therefore, the virtual structure of matter in a set of basic and complementary modules allow, within limits, to achieve the minimum targets, to study an "Ecophysiology a la carte”, owing mainly to the future interests of these students. In this sense, Moodle is the virtual platform that today offers us the possibility of achieving the above objectives. To ensure the success of subject virtualization, the platform will offer a range of resources to students as plan of the course, teaching materials, tasks, readings, links, glossaries, self-assessment questionnaires, bulletin boards, forums, communications service through email, assessment of the subject, etc. The curriculum of the subject, as indicated above, will be distributed as obligatory basic modules and additional modules, among which are able to choose a minimum for passing the subject, being open the possibility of spending the whole of them, depending on the future interests of the students. The virtual tutoring will take place through the forums for the resolution of issues related to the subject and also by e-mail for the resolution of those issues that are personal. Finally, the evaluation will be conducted continuously, with the proposed of a set of activities for that the students can apply the knowledge gained through the material and resources. The activities will be published as progress is made on the contents of the subject, according to the schedule proposed and the modules chosen. The self-assessment exercises will consist in multiple choices, true-false and short answers. Student participation in forums and search for resources (physical or computer) that contribute to the enrichment of the sources of documentation proposed by the teacher will be assessed. There will be a complete logging and tracing the different user access, providing activity reports for each student with details of their activity history.

Keywords:

E-learning, International Teaching, Personal Adaptation.