STUDENT’S OPINION ON AN ADAPTED METHODOLOGY AND ASSESSMENT TO THE EUROPEAN SPACE FOR HIGHER EDUCATION

The implementation of the European Space for Higher Education in the Spanish University implies an important change in the educational methodology and assessment processes to be applied in the education system.

Within this context, the roll of the student is modified, first because he/she will have to be the motor that generates its learning and, second, because not only he/she will learn within the superior institutions, but also any situation and educative experience will be able to approach to him/her the society of the knowledge. The acquisition of aptitudes throughout the life will be not only important for its personal accomplishment, but it will be important for the society at the same time. On the other hand, the lecturer changes his/her roles to develop other tasks such as guide, orientation, advisory and facilitator of learning’s resources.

These ideas reflect the important role that students must play. Therefore, it is necessary to know the students’ opinions about these new practices. In this context, the philosophy of quality management considers that a basic principle of the quality culture is the customer focus, which means to analyse the opinion of the students to improve the quality.

For this reason, the aim of this paper is to examine the degree of student satisfaction on a methodology and assessment system adapted to the European Space for Higher Education.

In order to know the students’ opinion a subject related to management (Business Administration Degree) was chosen. Particularly, Human Resources Management subject was chosen because its contents have adopted new practices associated to the European Space for Higher Education. It was possible to use a new method and a new system of evaluation (almost) continuous. Many students were Erasmus. This issue seemed significant to us to know what the student from other countries think about this process.

The results of the study were satisfactory because the students prefer a methodology focused on the students and supported with a semi-continuous assessment system, in spite of the greater work than it supposes. The fundamental reason is that it allows continuous learning, since they learn by themselves, have the possibility of improving continuously, they feel listened, they see a real application of the theory, and they are more motivated because they are learning with their effort and the results are improving.

The main difficulties were the lack of time, the excessive effort, the language for the Erasmus student, and problems related to the high complexity of some supposed questions. In this sense, the main improvements for the future should focus on the introduction of more theory and the use of simpler cases.

With respect to the assessment system, 94.5% of the students support the combined continuous assessment with final examination. They opposed to the traditional final examination, arguing that this method allows them to control the evolution of the knowledge.

The problem of this system is the use of the new practices by all the subjects. It would be complicated to make compatible dates, works and deliveries. Then, a collaborative atmosphere by all lecturers is needed to facilitate the efforts of the students. We would have to plan in a joint manner the dates of deliveries or to adopted periods in which the student only attends two or three subjects simultaneously, so they can concentrate better his efforts.