Sin ttulo de diapositiva

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Evaluating Distributed Learning at the University
of Girona
Jose Luis Marzo marzo_at_eia.udg.es Clara Inés
Peña clarenes_at_eia.udg.es
César Mantilla cmantill_at_eia.udg.es Liliana
Carrillo lilianac_at_eia.udg.es
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Index

• ODL Projects at UdG
• USD distributed and learning system
• Evaluated Courses
• Courses Evaluation Methodology
• Statistical Analysis from Surveys
• Students Actions/Activities
• Conclusions

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ODL Projects at UdG
Intercampus

• Project of a group of Catalan universities that
  has the support of the Department of Universities
  and the Research and Society of the Information
  at Cataluña.
• Its main goal is to develop a pilot experience
  to exchange freestanding subjects that are
  imparted by means of Internet.
• It allows the students of other universities to
  incorporate to the virtual teaching of a concrete
  university.

http//www.catcampus.org
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ODL Projects at UdG
Educational Innovative Projects

• Currently we carry out teaching and learning
  support to nine (9) courses via the USD platform,
  however the most representative ones and from
  wich we got interesting feedback were
• Computer Networks
• World Economy
• ICT resources at Educational Centres
• Criminal Law
• Instructional Psychology
• Basic Statistics

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Index

• ODL Projects at UdG
• USD distributed and learning system
• Evaluated Courses
• Courses Evaluation Methodology
• Statistical Analysis from Surveys
• Students Actions/Activities
• Conclusions

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USD distributed and learning system
USD Modular architecture
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USD distributed and learning system
USD general performance
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Index

• ODL Projects at UdG
• USD distributed and learning system
• Evaluated Courses
• Courses Evaluation Methodology
• Statistical Analysis from Surveys
• Students Actions/Activities
• Conclusions

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Evaluated Courses
Main Courses

• Computer Networks
• World Economy
• ICT resources at Educational Centres
• Criminal Law
• Instructional Psychology
• Basic Statistics
• For instance, we offer the complete information
  of the Computer Networks course

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Evaluated Courses
Implementation plan
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Evaluated Courses
Implementation plan
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Evaluated Courses
Implementation plan
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Evaluated Courses
Implementation plan
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Evaluated Courses
Implementation plan
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Evaluated Courses
Material presentation
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Evaluated Courses
Material presentation
On-line help
Chat
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Evaluated Courses
Material presentation
Navigation tools
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Evaluated Courses
Material presentation (sensitive maps)
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Evaluated Courses
Material presentation (glossary)
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Evaluated Courses
Material presentation (animations)
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Evaluated Courses
Material presentation (simulations)
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Evaluated Courses
Material presentation (chat)
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Index

• ODL Projects at UdG
• USD distributed and learning system
• Evaluated Courses
• Courses Evaluation Methodology
• Statistical Analysis from Surveys
• Students Actions/Activities
• Conclusions

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Courses Evaluation Methodology
Follow up learning activities
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Courses Evaluation Methodology
Questionnaire 1 - Professors

• Educational objectives
• .Type of material offered
• Media and formats used
• Collaborative work by means of
• About the teaching environment
• Student activities follow-up

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Courses Evaluation Methodology
Questionnaire 2 - Students

• From which place did you usually get access to
  the USD platform ?
• .How did you connect? 
• In general, up to which point were you motivated
  to obtain good results in this course using the
  learning material offered by the platform? 
• Did you receive orientative instructions about
  the way of carrying out the learning activities
  proposed and how to get access to the system?
• Did you agree with the presentation of the
  proposed materials?
• Do you think that the learning material proposed
  was practical?  
• If you could choose, what format would you
  prefer for these materials? 
• Which navigation tool did you use to follow the
  theoretical subjects? 
• Did you carry out all the learning activities
  proposed?
• Do you think that the training carried out  by
  means of the proposed exercises helped you to
  obtain good results in the exams?   

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Courses Evaluation Methodology
Questionnaire 2 - Students

• Did you take advantage of the USD platform
  resources?    
• Did you ask your teacher to solve doubts when
  you were carrying out the learning activities?  
• Which media did you use to communicate with the
  teacher?   
• Was the professor willing to assist your
  consultations?   
• Did you use the systems help tools?
• Did you use the forum when carrying out the
  learning activities?    
• According to your experience, do you consider
  important the work carried out through the forum
  and the chat as a contribution to the learning of
  the course?  
• Did the USD platform work correctly during the
  development of the learning activities?
• Do you think that the use of the new
  technologies can make the learning activities
  easier?  

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Index

• ODL Projects at UdG
• USD distributed and learning system
• Evaluated Courses
• Courses Evaluation Methodology
• Statistical Analysis from Surveys
• Students Actions/Activities
• Conclusions

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Statistical Analysis from Surveys
Questionnaire for professors
The questionnaire was answered by fifteen
professors who used the USD teaching environment
with different expectations and objectives, for
this reason the material that conformed their
teaching unit contents was dissimilar and varied.
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Statistical Analysis from Surveys
Questionnaire for professors
About open questions

• Procedures used to evaluate the learning
  activities carried out by the students at the USD
  platform
• Aspects that the USD platform should be improved
  to support distance teaching and learning
  processes

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Statistical Analysis from Surveys
Questionnaire for students
About 104 students responded the questionnaire,
all of them using different and heterogeneous
teaching units in the USD platform.
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Index

• ODL Projects at UdG
• USD distributed and learning system
• Evaluated Courses
• Courses Evaluation Methodology
• Statistical Analysis from Surveys
• Students Actions/Activities
• Conclusions

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Students Actions/Activities
Common carried out actions
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Students Actions/Activities
Connection Places
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Index

• ODL Projects at UdG
• USD distributed and learning system
• Evaluated Courses
• Courses Evaluation Methodology
• Statistical Analysis from Surveys
• Students Actions/Activities
• Conclusions

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Conclusions
About the teacherssurveys

• Professors re-used the electronic materials
  prepared previously in text formats to build the
  teaching units at the USD platform. This
  characteristic was observed specially in teaching
  units built exclusively around theoretical
  contents.
• According to the nature of the teaching units
  offered, different types of media formats were
  used for the explanation of learning contents.
• The learning activities prepared exclusively for
  distance students used the collaborative work
  tools massively.

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Conclusions
About the teacherssurveys

• The teaching environment was easy to use for
  those professors who had the opportunity to
  practice enough the use of the teaching tools.
• We were able to appreciate the efectiveness of
  the tools offered to the professors to follow up
  the students' performance in this learning
  environment and also the good disposition
  demostrated by professors involved in this new
  teaching modality.
• Currently we are working to improve the
  connection to the platform via any of the common
  used browsers and the use of the teaching tools
  to make easier the maintenance of the teaching
  units.

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Conclusions
About the studentssurveys

• The students felt comfortable developing the
  learning activities proposed in the concerned
  teaching units.
• The students carried-out the learning activities
  motivated to achieve a good grade in the final
  exams when using self-assessment materials.
• We perceived a little tendency to follow the
  conductivist theory in the students learning
  processes. They still used the USD platform
  resources as strictly as necessary and in
  accordance with the professors guiding.
• The connection problems found and the
  incompatibilities presented when using different
  version of browsers made us to improve the
  educational framework and to think about the
  redesign of some aspects of the learning
  environment.

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Conclusions
About the studentssurveys

• Nevertheless there exist students that do not
  accept this new modality of education at all and
  in consequence they prefer to study by means of
  printed materials.
• The students wanted to use more interactive
  materials with a combination of different media
  formats. Currently we are working around the
  development of a two-level multiagent system that
  could give adaptive features to the USD platform
  considering learning styles as a base for the
  students profiles. For instance, we have an
  advanced development in assistance agents that
  could always remain in the learning environment
  accompanying and guiding the students during the
  progress of their activities.