USING A LEARNING CONTRACT FOR STATISTICS LEARNING IN THE FIRST COURSE OF A NEW ENGINEERING DEGREE

In the University of Jaén, 2010-2011 has been the first academic year offering a Computer Engineering degree adapted to the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). Lecturers are being trained for the implementation of technological tools in our subjects as well as the adaptation to the new requirements. In this sense, we introduce our students in Virtual Teaching to effective learning environments and improved teacher-student interaction. In the learning platform, notes were adapted to a more dynamic process and learning guidelines were also stated. The practical part is carried out by activities, questionnaires of self-assessment and lists of exercises and practices that are sent to students and corrected by the lecturer or automatically by the system depending on the type of activity. With these technological tools, we can offer the students learning environments that encourage the students to be more involved in their learning. But they must participate and become more responsible and independent. This paper explores the use of a learning contract developed for improved teaching and student involvement in the subject of “Statistics” included in the first course of Computer Engineering degree. This document sets the learning objectives, methodological aspects and the evaluation system and specifies the student commitment. That is, the use of learning contracts in the first year of the University of Jaén allows us to introduce them to active learning experiences.