La evaluación de la competencia comunicativa específica en el ámbito de la ingeniería y la arquitectura

La progresiva internacionalización de las universidades españolas convierte a estas organizaciones en escenarios plurilingües. El español convive en ellos con otras lenguas, en especial el inglés, como vehículo de acceso y transmisión de conocimiento especializado. Esto requiere un proceso de alfabetización académica en lengua extranjera que tendrían que asumir las universidades de acogida, con objeto de preservar a los alumnos de los fracasos en los programas internacionales. Por el momento, en España, los programas de grado o de posgrado no establecen filtros con umbrales lingüísticos mínimos de acceso, a excepción de algunas universidades que se limitan a requerir certificados de grado de dominio del español general. No existen exámenes públicos de ingreso, o exámenes propios de postadmisión, que evalúen la habilidad lingüística comunicativa en contextos académicos. En este trabajo, se parte de la hipótesis de que los exámenes que certifican un grado de dominio de español general no sirven al propósito de discriminar a los alumnos capaces de seguir con éxito los programas de las universidades. Para verificarla, se desarrolla una prueba de examen específica que mida la capacidad de emplear el español en contextos académicos. La prueba se centra en las tareas que se revelan, en una primera fase exploratoria de la investigación, como más necesarias en lo que se refiere al uso del español como lengua vehicular: las clases magistrales. Una vez pilotada, se administró junto con otras destinadas a evaluar el grado de dominio de la lengua en contextos generales. Los resultados obtenidos del contraste de estas mediciones y de diversos análisis de los datos arrojan evidencias de que este tipo de prueba mide un constructo específico: la habilidad de uso del español en contextos académicos. ABSTRACT The progressive internationalization of Spanish universities has transformed these organizations into plurilingual scenarios. Spanish lives in them sharing the stage with other languages, especially English, as a means of access and transmission of expert knowledge. This requires a process of academic literacy in foreign language that host universities should assume, in order to safeguard students from failures in international programs. At the moment, in Spain, undergraduate or graduate programs do not set filters with minimum language requirements to gain access, except for some universities that merely require certificates of general Spanish. There are no Spanish language public admission exams, or post-enrollment tests of their own, to assess the communicative language ability of foreign students in academic contexts. In this dissertation, we start from the hypothesis that those tests that certify the student degree of mastery of the Spanish language do not serve the purpose of discriminating against students capable of successfully pursuing university programs. To prove it, a specific test that measures the ability to use Spanish in academic contexts was developed. This language test focused on the tasks associated with the most common genre, which revealed prominent in a first exploratory phase of the investigation, related to the use of Spanish as a means of instruction: university lectures. Once piloted, the test was administered along with others designed to assess the degree of mastery of the language in general contexts. Contrast results of these measurements and various analyzes of the data showed evidence that this type of test measures a specific construct: the ability to use Spanish in academic contexts.

Evaluación de la pertinencia de maestrías en ingeniería : aplicación en la Universidad de Piura, Perú

La formación de postgrado en ingeniería es muy importante para mejorar la competitividad y lograr el desarrollo en los países. Para ello es necesaria una fuerte vinculación de la universidad con su entorno socio económico de modo que los objetivos que se plantea en sus programas formativos sean coherentes con las necesidades reales de los beneficiarios: los estudiantes, la universidad y la comunidad. Es decir, los programas deben ser pertinentes. Y en los países en vías de desarrollo este tema es aún más importante. Se necesita modelos de evaluación que midan este grado de adecuación entre los objetivos de los programas con las necesidades de los estudiantes y las partes interesadas. Sin embargo, los modelos de evaluación existentes tienen principalmente fines de acreditación y están diseñados para evaluar la eficacia, es decir si los resultados obtenidos están de acuerdo con la misión y los objetivos planteados. Su objetivo no es medir la pertinencia. Esta investigación tiene como objetivo diseñar un modelo de evaluación de la pertinencia de maestrías en ingeniería y aplicarlo a un caso concreto. Se trata de maestrías que ya están en funcionamiento y son dictadas en una universidad en un país en desarrollo. Para diseñar el modelo se define primero el concepto de pertinencia de una maestría en ingeniería haciendo una revisión bibliográfica y consultando a expertos en los temas de pertinencia de la educación superior y formación en postgrado en ingeniería. Se utiliza una definición operativa que facilita luego la identificación de factores e indicadores de evaluación. Se identifica dos tipos de pertinencia: local y global. La pertinencia global está relacionada con la inserción de la maestría en el sistema global de producción de conocimiento. La pertinencia local tiene tres dimensiones: la personal, relacionada con la satisfacción de necesidades de los estudiantes, la institucional, relacionada con las necesidades e intereses de la universidad que acoge a la maestría y la pertinencia social, ligada a la satisfacción de necesidades y demandas de la comunidad local y nacional. El modelo diseñado es aplicado en la maestría en Ingeniería Civil con mención en Ingeniería Vial de la Universidad de Piura, Perú lo que permite obtener conclusiones para su aplicación en otras maestrías. ABSTRACT Graduate engineering education is very important to improve competitiveness and achieve development in countries. It is necessary a strong linkage between university and its socio economic environment, so that programs objectives are consistent with the real needs of the students, university and community. That is to say programs must be relevant. And in developing countries this issue is very important. Evaluation models to measure the degree of adequacy between the programs objectives with the needs of students and stakeholders is needed. However, existing evaluation models have mainly the purpose of accreditation and are designed to evaluate the efficacy. They evaluate if the results are consistent with the mission and objectives. Their goal is not to measure the relevance. This work aimed to design a model for evaluating the relevance of master's degrees in engineering and applied to a specific case. They must be masters already in operation and are taught at a university in a developing country. In order to build the model, first concept of relevance of a master's degree in engineering was defined. Literature was reviewed and we consulted experts on issues of relevance of higher education and graduate engineering education. An operational definition is used to facilitate the identification of factors and evaluation indicators. Local and global: two types of relevance were identified. The global relevance is related to the inclusion of Master in the global system of knowledge production. The local relevance has three dimensions: personal, related to meeting students' needs, institutional, related to the needs and interests of university that houses the Master and social relevance, linked to the satisfaction of needs and demands of local and national community. The designed model is applied to the Master degree in Civil Engineering with a major in Traffic Engineering of Universidad de Piura, Peru which allowed to obtain conclusions for application in other masters.

Assessing the suitability of student interactions from Moodle data logs as predictors of cross-curricular competencies

In the past decades, online learning has transformed the educational landscape with the emergence of new ways to learn. This fact, together with recent changes in educational policy in Europe aiming to facilitate the incorporation of graduate students to the labor market, has provoked a shift on the delivery of instruction and on the role played by teachers and students, stressing the need for development of both basic and cross-curricular competencies. In parallel, the last years have witnessed the emergence of new educational disciplines that can take advantage of the information retrieved by technology-based online education in order to improve instruction, such as learning analytics. This study explores the applicability of learning analytics for prediction of development of two cross-curricular competencies – teamwork and commitment – based on the analysis of Moodle interaction data logs in a Master’s Degree program at Universidad a Distancia de Madrid (UDIMA) where the students were education professionals. The results from the study question the suitability of a general interaction-based approach and show no relation between online activity indicators and teamwork and commitment acquisition. The discussion of results includes multiple recommendations for further research on this topic.

Educational Needs and Future Prospects in the Field of Health and Safety at Work in Spain

Aiming to identify educational needs to promote employment in the field of Occupational Health and Safety in Spain, this paper analyses the matching degree between the existing university educational offer and the professional demand. Results indicate that the new official Masters are well driven but, at graduate level, a broad range of topics regarding occupational hazards should be promoted and the scope of cross subjects should be expanded. New profiles that are emerging within this field are also identified.

Labor risk prevention culture encouragement among students from building degree in the Technical University of Madrid

The influence of training in labor risk prevention and the development of the resulting pre-emptive culture are analyzed within this paper. In order to achieve this, a quantitative analysis of the students of Building Degree in the Technic University of Madrid has been developed. This study has been made in all grades, valuating the previous knowledge acquired during compulsory education. It must be kept in mind that the students in 3rd and 4th grade have received general and specific compulsory training in prevention and safety in the building sector.