Abstract:

The adoption of blended learning, a combination of traditional classroom and technology-mediated teaching, known as Blended Learning (BL), is increasing in higher education around the world. In fact, some experts point out that BL will become the "new traditional model" or the "new normal" in the offer of higher education courses.

Current circumstances brought about by the COVID SARS-19 pandemic have offered an unexpected opportunity to evolve towards educational models such as BL that combine a hybrid system of face-to-face and virtual learning. In this sense, Information and Communication Technologies, ICTs, are especially relevant, since they have supported learning and evaluation processes in the context of teaching and, therefore, allow us to investigate how to adopt / implement this educational model institutionally.

In this paper, we will analyze the suitability of face-to-face/online presentation of academic works in blended learning environments. For this purpose, we have selected the Biomechanics and Surgical Pathology subject taught in the third year of the Bachelor's Degree in Biomedical Engineering and Behavior of Materials in Service taught in the first year of the Master's Degree in Mechatronic Engineering. In these subjects, students are assessed on the transversal competence Comprehension and Integration and Design and Project, respectively.

Given the exceptional situation of reduced attendance, the presentation of the works was performed online through a screencast video that the students prepared at home, instead of being performed in person. The videos were viewed by the teacher and the rest of the classmates in several online sessions and both, the teacher's evaluation and the co-evaluation, which awarded the three best works, were carried out using the Google Forms tool. The students were asked to evaluate: the work contents, the work difficulty, the relationship with the subject, the exposition, etc. They were also asked to assign a mark to the work. After this, they were asked to do a survey, also using the Google Forms tool, to assess their experience with this new way of presenting works.

Keywords:

Blended Learning, TICs, Covid-19, Face-to-face, remote learning, evaluation.