We have presented the use of MOODLE Workshops and Forums as innovative educational tools to enhance the continuous collaborative work of the students while learning chemical engineering on another communication to ICERI 2008.
In order to establish if satisfactory results are attained by the implementation of these modifications we have performed several internal evaluations, based on the analysis of the academic results of the students and on their satisfaction with the innovations.
Regarding the analysis of the academic results, first, it is important to indicate that the relatively small number of students affects the reliability of the statistics: During the academic year a total number of 62 students were enrolled, although less than 50 % were in their first year attempt to get a pass. For this first-year students the innovations were compulsory, while the repeaters could choose between the “traditional way” (TW) that they have known in the previous year(s) and the “innovative way” (IW), and very few of them chose the IW.
The IW students were asked to do 16 Moodle Workshops. Almost 100 % of them did a satisfactory work for the first third of the Workshops, and then a gradual decrease in the activity was observed with only 60 % doing the Workshops at the end of the semester. Nevertheless, there were two clear groups: about 75 % of the students did more than 80 % of the Workshops, while the activity of the remaining 25 % was about 50 %.
A first tool for the internal evaluation is to perform a comparison between the number of students that get a pass on the academic year of the innovations and on the previous years. That analysis show a poor achievement since almost 60 % of the students failed in both cases. Nevertheless, only 32 % of the students that were following the IW failed, and a significant improvement was observed in the mean value of the marks they obtained. Another important observation is that the Workshops activity of the 22 students of the IW group that succeeded getting a pass was of 93.3 % whereas the 10 students of that group that failed only did 55 % of the Workshops. Therefore, it can be concluded that the innovative tools helped those students willing to do a continuous work during the semester to achieve good marks, but was unsuccessful to increase the number of such students.
On the other hand, a satisfaction poll was passed to the IW group of students at the end of the semester. Results of that poll indicate that more than 90 % of them would recommend other students to follow the IW. Other questions indicate that they consider more interesting the first stage of the workshop than the second one, that they have increased the use of the tutorial tools (virtual or with personal attendance), and that they give a mean mark of 7.8 over 10 to the innovations introduced.