Abstract:

In this work, an experience of on line learning in the matter “Experimentation of General Physics”, of Degree on Physics, during 2009-2010 courses, is presented.
The subject of the activities concerned “Optics”, integrated to a course of the II year. The students have followed and completed a first course on traditional way, then they have participated to the on line activities. So, a comparison between two methodologies will be made.
During the traditional course, the students had the opportunity to work in groups of three or four: they collaborated with each other in the laboratory preparing the experiments concretely, planning their activities, making the measurements, etc. But also, they carried out individual activities outside the laboratory, calculating the error of measurements, studying the physics law that the experiments represented, preparing the reports etc.
The main difficulty highlighted concerned the second phase, when the students with more deficiencies had to carry out their individual work.
The introduction of some on line activities, through a learning management system, increased the opportunities of collaborative learning, giving the students the possibility to compare the results of measurements and the error analysis with other students (when the teacher activated sessions with this aim), stimulating the self evaluation, receiving a great impulse to improve their work. At the same time, the on line environment allowed a continuous connection with the professor through the forum open to all students of the course. During the on line sessions, the students produced learning materials, such as videos concerning the laboratory activities, photos, tables, etc

Keywords:

Physics education, cooperative learning, innovation, technology.