Abstract:

This communication presents the analysis of a new assessment model (60 - formal exam / 40 - creation of Digital Learning Objects) at Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), Spain. The main objective of this model is to propose a type of continuous assessment with an eminently practical approach in which the student can demonstrate that he/she is acquiring content and developing generic competencies through the creation of Digital Learning Objects (DLO) with different free digital resources based on augmented reality, chatbots, video, gamification and interactive concept maps, among others. With this type of active methodology we intend to implement the 60/40 model.

The transversal and generics competencies involved in this model cover two areas:
(1) "Management of communication and information processes" in which two competencies are developed: "CG4.- Communicate orally and in writing in all dimensions of their professional activity with all types of interlocutors. " and "CG5.- Use efficiently and sustainably the tools and resources of the knowledge society."
(2) "Teamwork" area in which the "CG6.- Teamwork" competence takes place. The model was applied in the subject of "Media, Didactic Resources and Educational Technology" of the Degree in Pedagogy. The sample consists of 337 students (69% women and 31% men). The methodology applied to analyze the results of this project was qualitative.

For this, two virtual discussion forums of the subject have been organized around two themes:
(1) Didactic applicability and dissemination of Digital Learning Objects and
(2) Advantages and disadvantages of using Digital Learning Objects.

Furthermore, we used the software “InfraNodus” written in JavaScript (Node.Js) implementing Sigma.Js, Cytoscape and Graphology libraries in the front-end and java-based Neo4J graph database. The text is then converted into a directed network graph. This application of graph theory helps gain a better understanding of the textual discourse structure of the relationships between “assessment” and “digital learning objects”, identifying the semantic structure of the relationships among them. Finally, the method of pairwise comparisons was implemented to focus on the summarization of shared or unshared topics among document groups (Campr & Jezek, 2013; Zhai, Velivelli, & Yu, 2004). The comparison criterion depends on the topics discovered using latent Dirichlet allocation or LDA (Blei, Andrew, & Jordan, 2003) and a pairwise distance matrix. Finally, we calculated tf-idf of bigrams across the main clusters of topics. This activity generated 337 students’ interventions in the forums with a total of 67,554 words. The results show that most of the nodes (75%) have a grade below 8. While about 25% of the nodes have >=8 connections. This is related to the so-called Pareto principle: where 20% of the causes are responsible for 80% of the results, which is a specific case to constitute a power law. In this sense, the didactic applicability of the DLO is perceived by students as a resource that must be characterized by being: free, adaptable, reusable and versatile and with a didactic intention that allows promoting the process of reviewing content and skills from the beginning of self-creation. Students consider that this model of assessment increases their possibility to be more creative and produce a better understanding of the subject.

Keywords:

Higher Education, assessment, digital learning objects, competencies.