THE USE OF POLIFORMAT IN THE COURSE “INTERIOR ARCHITECTURE”

In the academic year 2006-2007 PoliformaT becomes the Sakai-based e-learning platform of the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Spain. This was the development of older on-line systems like the microwebs for courses. The Sakai CLE is a free and open source Courseware Management System. It features a set of software tools designed to help lecturers, researchers and students in collaborating online in support of their work, whether it be course instruction, research or other general project collaboration.
The aim of this paper is to present the use and the results of the use of this on-line platform in the Course of Interior Architecture with regard to our 3 years experience. This course is located in the 4th year of the degree of Technical Architecture with 18 credits. This course is also foreseen in the new degree Construction Engineer (Ingeniero de la Edificacion) that will start in the next academic year always on the 4th year but with 12 ECTS.
PoliformaT makes possible the online management of all materials (Resources- Recursos) that are used by the teaching staff for the lessons (projects, plans, Powerpoint presentations, pictures, charts, software, reading materials). It allows also announcing conferences or changes in the schedule of lectures (by mail), to check the delivering of some work that can be put on the Shared Space (Espacio Compartido), to have access to exams and qualifications (Exámenes y Calificaciones). Chat and Forum are also available even if in our case we didn’t really use it.
This non-presential activities and tools are the new horizon of the European Space for Higher Education and we are right now in a process of convergence to the ESHE.
Especially students take advantage of this on-line platform where they find a lot of useful information as the Teaching Guide (Guía Docente) and all resources for a better attending of the course as well an open space to exchange experiences and information. In this way we also promote the engagement of the student in the course and in the new technologies.
The new technologies introduced by the teaching staff and used by the students have improved the quality of the final projects presented and also the acquired transversal skills.