P. Sánchez Medina, A. González García, E. Aguilar Fernándiz, M.J. Álvarez-Cubero, V. Arenas Rodríguez, P. Ariza Vega, A. Casas Barragán, L. Chica Redecillas, M. Correa Rodríguez, I. García García, S. García Rodríguez, M. Lozano Lozano, A. Martín Salvador, L.J. Martínez González, D. Romero Ayuso, R.M. Tapia Haro, I. Torres Sánchez
Introduction:
The Final Degree Project (TFG) is a research project that students develop autonomously in order to demonstrate the mastery and application of knowledge, competences and skills. The students of the three degrees taught in the Faculty of Health Sciences of the University of Granada (UGR) (Nursing, Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy) expressed in the meetings established in the framework of the tutorial action plan of the global orientation and academic tutoring of the teaching-learning process the need for training material for the completion and defence of the TFG. The training capsules are a complementary tool that provides short information or brief periods of student interaction with different content on the procedure and presentation of the dissertation. Each student decides when to use the resource, as it is an asynchronous tool available throughout the academic year. In this way, the training capsules constitute a complementary tool of technological innovation useful for alleviating the weaknesses detected and encouraging student motivation in their learning, as well as unifying the teaching and methodology used in the subject in the three Degrees and favouring the results obtained from the students on the management of the TFGs.
Objectives.
To prepare information capsules for guidance in the preparation and defence of the TFG, as well as to evaluate the impact of this tool and the students' feedback.
Methodology:
In the first phase, the needs of the students for the development and presentation of the TFG were determined collaboratively by the teaching staff who had previously tutored TFG in the Bachelor's Degree in Nursing, Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy. In a second phase, these needs were structured into twelve themes. Finally, the teaching staff transformed these topics into twelve training capsules, which are short videos (5 to 10 minutes) to explain and reinforce various contents related to the process of preparing and defending the TFG.
Results:
A total of 43 students responded to an anonymous survey created ad hoc to evaluate the training capsules programme. 67.4% of the students stated that they had improved their ability to manage/invest time. Likewise, 60.5% and 74.4% reported having improved their ability to carry out a bibliographic search and their ability to defend their dissertation, respectively. In addition, 65.1% of students feel more confident in the preparation of the dissertation. 67.4% of students consider that this methodology could be useful for other subjects, and 65.1% would recommend the implementation of this methodology in the TFG subject in future academic years. In general, 88.4% of students are very satisfied with the training capsules programme.
Conclusion:
The use of the training capsules could be considered a good asynchronous e-learning active learning tool that favours the students' confidence and motivation during the development and presentation of the dissertation.
Keywords: Final Degree Project, Training capsules, Teaching innovation, Communication technologies, Active learning.