THE MASTER IN POLITIC AND ECONOMIC INTEGRATION IN THE EU (UPV/EHU). A NEW “HYBRID COURSE-BLENDED LEARNING COURSE” TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Thorough last academic courses and within the University of the Basque Country framework we have successfully been offering a Master's Degree in Political Integration and Economic Union in the European Union. This is a Master directed towards researching, with direct access to a doctoral programme on the topic of the European Union.

Among the various features that characterize the Master there are two very significant. The first one is that the Master is twofold: one side is devoted to the Public law of the European Union; and the other to the Economic Integration in the European Union; with both sides sharing a common set of core subjects.

The other feature that distinguishes this Master is its “hybrid character” with a teaching methodology that integrates on-site education with online teaching. Indeed, the Master awards an official grade of Master (with access to a PhD), with 60 credits. One of the basic features is that all subjects can be followed online, but on an optional basis chosen by each of the students on his/her own more than 70% of the subjects are offered on-site, with face-to-face instruction. The virtual teaching takes place through the Moodle platform by the use of ICT.

The purpose of our participation is to describe and share our experience regarding how our Master has coped with integrating both features through the use of modern and emerging technologies in computers.

Research for this paper was carried out in the framework of the Project of Educational Innovation 2010/2012 "Europar Batasuneko Zuzenbidea geureganatuz" and UFI 11/05 (University of the Basque Country).