Abstract:

This research is part of the program that the area of Business Organization has been developing to adapt their subjects to the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) and within the policies of educational innovation at the University of Castilla-La Mancha (Spain). In this sense, the university launched a project at the Centre for Development of implementation of ECTS credits that has been done gradually in various degrees. In this study we analyze two subjects with different profiles, first the subject of Strategic Management (SM), that is coursed in the last year of the degree, and, secondly, the subject of Entrepreneurship (E), that is generally coursed in the first two years of the degree. Both groups of students differ in the way of perceiving and facing the implementation of ECTS European credits, as well as about the satisfaction with the results obtained with this new learning plan.

Most research in this area generally focus on the study of practical experiences in a particular course or even a whole qualification, but in this case, our work has involved a comparative analysis of students between two different subjects. The differences in the profiles of students in SM and E allow us to draw some conclusions which help to guide the implementation of ECTS credits in different subjects in order to improve the application of new learning techniques and get better results. Students attending the course in SM are characterized mainly because they value more positively aspects of the clarity of information provided by the teacher, as the support materials, references, temporary organization of the subject and systems of evaluation. They also give a higher importance to the feedback procedure in the evaluation. These students perceived that the level of effort required to develop this new learning process is relatively high and also show a high degree of satisfaction with the results. Furthermore, although they value in a very positive way the implementation and development of the learning plan, they show a more critical attitude on the overall learning process, specifically with regard to the development of classes and teaching methods.

The students of Entrepreneurship show a different profile. First, they are more concerned about the teaching methods and have a higher valuation of the subject guide. Another significant difference for these students is that they acknowledge a higher level of effort than the other group in the development of the subject, but in turn, they show a higher degree of satisfaction, both on the learning in general and on the evaluation system. Furthermore, these students have obtained a higher score in the final grade for the course.

In sum, we note that the students of the Entrepreneurship subject perform better and capture more effectively the new active learning methodology used to implement the ECTS, as perceived by the greater development and improvement of their skills at the end of the learning process. However, they also show a more critical spirit with this new system, especially at the high workload that it represents for them, though they accept it because they reveal a high level of satisfaction with the results.

Keywords:

ECTS methodology, students' perception.