Abstract:

In this release we present the educational project “ET (Emerging Technologies) for university students” developed in the University of Alcala de Henares. The main objective of the project is to develop professional competences, included in the academic curriculum of the students and key transversal competences in the labor market, by using learning collaborative communities.
With the use of ET, the students, autonomously and creatively, propose and develop basic elements for their learning and they exchange experiences related to the application of the knowledge acquired in their classroom. The virtual learning collaborative communities are established as a complement and active part of the teaching – learning process. Students develop their own academic contents in digital format that are used after as a base to the exchange and management of knowledge in the communities.
During the development of the project the processes of communication and the methods established by the students for the development of collaborative learning are analyzed just as the change of role from the teachers and their participation in the learning communities.
Among the main results of the project we can remark the increase of implication and active participation from the students in their own learning, improving their satisfaction and performance in the subject, meanwhile the feeling of identity and belonging to the interest group increases, allowing learning to occur both individually and as a group.

Keywords:

Group learning, learning communities, professional competences.