We are a group of telecommunication and electronic professors at Universidad Europea de Madrid (Laureate International Universities) www.uem.es/en. The group also has five project leaders in different disciplines related with Education and E-learning projects. That is, we are prepared to tackle a great deal of R&D and innovation projects.

Please find in the following paragraphs a brief description of our current projects and research interests. We are interested in widening our international network of contacts.

The project leaders (who can be contacted directly) are: MJ Terron (m_jose.terron@uem.es) , JA Piñuela (juan.pinuela@uem.es ), R Mompo (rafael.mompo@uem.es), L Garcia (lino.garcia@uem.es) , FJ Alvarez (fjose.alvarez@uem.es).

TRANSDISCIPLINARY EDUCATION (SCIENCE, ART AND TECHNOLOGY (L Garcia). The objective is to investigate different means of supporting the challenge of creating a trans-disciplinary framework which is capable of dealing with projects and other activities that are in the intersection of several disciplines, as for example the intersection between science, art, and technology. Some components of such framework are: the design of a technological infrastructure and a methodological superstructure, the integration of that framework in the learning system, the proposal of new formats and technologies to distribute contents (interactive and new communication media), the development of interactive tools that make knowledge dissemination and assimilation easier, the visualization of data, and interactive communication

KEY SKILLS AND THEIR ASSESSMENT (MJ Terron). It’s widely accepted in the technological sector the importance of, not only the knowledge, but also skills and competencies. The employers look for candidates able to work in a team, able to approach the problems, with the capacity to analyze and resolve problems, under the constant renewal of knowledge and competencies. Due to this question introducing key skills into the objectives of higher education studies has become inevitable. Although the concept of key skills is a bit confuse for teachers, due to the high dispersion that can be found in the bibliography. Moreover, there is not a standardized way to integrate the skills through each subject contents. We intend to give guidelines to the academic staff in order to clarify the concept of key skills. On the other hand, we also work in the distribution of the main ones through the curriculum and how to assess and measure the level acquired by the students.

FUTURE INTERNET IN E-LEARNING (FJ Alvarez). There is one research line related with using mobile devices for learning (which is called m-learning). A pilot project has already been conducted in our university. Moreover we are involved in technology platforms related to Future Internet: the Enterprise Enhanced Collaboration Tools initiatives as well as the Content initiatives are close related with the future of e-learning.

DEVELOPING SOFTWARE MODULES FOR THE AUTOMATIZATION OF EVALUATION AND OTHER LEARNING ACTIVITIES IN MOODLE (JA Piñuela; R Mompo). Peer evaluation improves students the ability to work collaboratively, and develops critical and judgment skills. It may be used to receive critical appraisals of, and feedback on, their own work. It also provides students with some insight into the criteria to be used for evaluating a given assignment. Many educators are experimenting with peer evaluation a more complete assessment of their students. Thanks to the emergence of a new set of technological tools and with the help of the Internet, it is possible to use and offer students ways to evaluate their peers with web-based technologies.The big challenges in peer evaluation are to ensure the capability of students to perform accurate assessments, and to manage big groups of students that are performing such peer evaluation. Carefully designed rubrics and information technologies tools address these two main goals.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION (R Mompo). The approach consists in pushing and evaluating the abilities and its associated behaviours. An enterprising engineer should have the following four behavioural characteristics: initiative, innovation, flexibility and dynamism. Moreover, business incubators, entrepreneur contests, and business angels networks should be considered as elements to be introduced in the final year project, as well as a kind of entrepreneurs club for those that have just left university but need some support to start their enterprising activity both as an entrepreneur or as an intra-entrepreneur.

Last updated 249 days ago by Rafael Mompo