"Innovatio educativa tertio millennio": 12 years evoluting from learning from learning to teaching in courses on educational innovation and collaboration with the UNESCO chair of mining and industrial heritage

Twelve years ago a group of teachers began to work in educational innovation. In 2002 we received an award for educational innovation, undergoing several stages. Recently, we have decided to focus on being teachers of educational innovation. We create a web scheduled in Joomla offering various services, among which we emphasize teaching courses of educational innovation. The “Instituto de Ciencias de la Educacion” in “Universidad Politécnica de Madrid” has recently incorporated two of these courses, which has been highly praised. These courses will be reissued in new calls, and we are going to offer them to more Universities. We are in contact with several institutions, radio programs, the UNESCO Chair of Mining and Industrial Heritage, and we are working with them in the creation of heritage courses using methods that we have developed.

Learning and Assessing Competencies: New challenges for Mathematics in Engineering Degrees in Spain.

The introduction of new degrees adapted to the European Area of Higher Education (EAHE) has involved a radically different approach to the curriculum. The new programs are structured around competencies that should be acquired. Considering the competencies, teachers must define and develop learning objectives, design teaching methods and establish appropriate evaluation systems. While most Spanish universities have incorporated methodological innovations and evaluation systems different from traditional exams, there is enough confusion about how to teach and assess competencies and learning outcomes, as traditionally the teaching and assessment have focused on knowledge. In this paper we analyze the state-of-the-art in the mathematical courses of the new engineering degrees in some Spanish universities.

Hybrid Approach Combining Machine Learning and a Rule-Based Expert System for Text Categorization

This paper discusses a novel hybrid approach for text categorization that combines a machine learning algorithm, which provides a base model trained with a labeled corpus, with a rule-based expert system, which is used to improve the results provided by the previous classifier, by filtering false positives and dealing with false negatives. The main advantage is that the system can be easily fine-tuned by adding specific rules for those noisy or conflicting categories that have not been successfully trained. We also describe an implementation based on k-Nearest Neighbor and a simple rule language to express lists of positive, negative and relevant (multiword) terms appearing in the input text. The system is evaluated in several scenarios, including the popular Reuters-21578 news corpus for comparison to other approaches, and categorization using IPTC metadata, EUROVOC thesaurus and others. Results show that this approach achieves a precision that is comparable to top ranked methods, with the added value that it does not require a demanding human expert workload to train

Measuring the influence of Cooperative Learning and Project Based Learning on problem solvin skill.

The aim of this study is to evaluate the effects obtained after applying two active learning methodologies (cooperative learning and project based learning) to the achievement of the competence problem solving. This study was carried out at the Technical University of Madrid, where these methodologies were applied to two Operating Systems courses. The first hypothesis tested was whether the implementation of active learning methodologies favours the achievement of ?problem solving?. The second hypothesis was focused on testing if students with higher rates in problem solving competence obtain better results in their academic performance. The results indicated that active learning methodologies do not produce any significant change in the generic competence ?problem solving? during the period analysed. Concerning this, we consider that students should work with these methodologies for a longer period, besides having a specific training. Nevertheless, a close correlation between problem solving self appraisal and academic performance has been detected.

Self Learning and self evaluation exercises database in basic mechanics: a theoretical-practical approach

In the School of Mines of the Technical University of Madrid (UPM) the first course of different degrees has been implemented and adapted to the European Higher Educational Area (EHEA). In all of the degrees there is a first semester course which gathers all the contents of basic mechanics: from the first kinematics concepts to the rigid solid plane motion Before the Bologna process took place, the authors had established the final assessment of the theoretical contents through open questions of theoretical-practical character In the present work, the elaboration of a wide database containing theoretical-practical questions that students can access on line is presented. The questions are divided in thirteen different questionnaires composed of a number of questions randomly chosen from a certain group in the database. Each group corresponds to a certain learning objective that the student knows. After answering the questionnaire and checking the grade assigned according to the performance of the student, the pupils can see the correct response displayed on the screen and widely explained by the professors. This represents a 10% of the final grade. As the student can access the questionnaires as many times as they want, the main goal is the self-assessment of each learning objective and therefore, getting the students involved in their own learning process so they can decide how much time they need to acquire the required level.

Survey on integration of Applied Geology and Geomorphology in Civil Engineering curricula in the framework of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) by using practical trips

The engineer must have sufficient theoretical knowledge to be applied to solve specific problems, with the necessary capacity to simplify these approaches, and taking into account factors such as speed, simplicity, quality and economy. In Geology, its ultimate goal is the exploration of the history of the geological events through observation, deduction, reasoning and, in exceptional cases by the direct underground exploration or experimentation. Experimentation is very limited in Geology. Reproduction laboratory of certain phenomena or geological processes is difficult because both time and space become a large scale. For this reason, some Earth Sciences are in a nearly descriptive stage whereas others closest to the experimental, Geophysics and Geochemistry, have assimilated progress experienced by the physics and chemistry. Thus, Anglo-Saxon countries clearly separate Engineering Geology from Geological Engineering, i.e. Applied Geology to the Geological Engineering concepts. Although there is a big professional overlap, the first one corresponds to scientific approach, while the last one corresponds to a technological one. Applied Geology to Engineering could be defined as the Science and Applied Geology to the design, construction and performance of engineering infrastructures in and field geology discipline. There has been much discussion on the primacy of theory over practice. Today prevails the exaggeration of practice, but you get good workers and routine and mediocre teachers. This idea forgets too that teaching problem is a problem of right balance. The approach of the action lines on the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) framework provides for such balance. Applied Geology subject represents the first real contact with the physical environment with the practice profession and works. Besides, the situation of the topic in the first trace of Study Plans for many students implies the link to other subjects and topics of the career (tunnels, dams, groundwater, roads, etc). This work analyses in depth the justification of such practical trips. It shows the criteria and methods of planning and the result which manifests itself in pupils. Once practical trips experience developed, the objective work tries to know about results and changes on student’s motivation in learning perspective. This is done regardless of the outcome of their knowledge achievements assessed properly and they are not subject to such work. For this objective, it has been designed a survey about their motivation before and after trip. Survey was made by the Unidad Docente de Geología Aplicada of the Departamento de Ingeniería y Morfología del Terreno (Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros de Caminos, Canales y Puertos, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid). It was completely anonymous. Its objective was to collect the opinion of the student as a key agent of learning and teaching of the subject. All the work takes place under new teaching/learning criteria approach at the European framework in Higher Education. The results are exceptionally good with 90% of student’s participation and with very high scores in a number of questions as the itineraries, teachers and visited places (range of 4.5 to 4.2 in a 5 points scale). The majority of students are very satisfied (average of 4.5 in a 5 points scale).

Active Learning and Dynamic Pricing Policies

In this paper, we address the problem of dynamic pricing to optimize the revenue coming from the sales of a limited inventory in a finite time-horizon. A priori, the demand is assumed to be unknown. The seller must learn on the fly. We first deal with the simplest case, involving only one class of product for sale. Furthermore the general situation is considered with a finite number of product classes for sale. In particular, a case in point is the sale of tickets for events related to culture and leisure; in this case, typically the tickets are sold months before the event, thus, uncertainty over actual demand levels is a very a common occurrence. We propose a heuristic strategy of adaptive dynamic pricing, based on experience gained from the past, taking into account, for each time period, the available inventory, the time remaining to reach the horizon, and the profit made in previous periods. In the computational simulations performed, the demand is updated dynamically based on the prices being offered, as well as on the remaining time and inventory. The simulations show a significant profit over the fixed-price strategy, confirming the practical usefulness of the proposed strategy. We develop a tool allowing us to test different dynamic pricing strategies designed to fit market conditions and seller s objectives, which will facilitate data analysis and decision-making in the face of the problem of dynamic pricing.

Active learning and generic competences in an operating systems course

The Bologna Declaration and the implementation of the European Higher Education Area are promoting the use of active learning methodologies. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effects obtained after applying active learning methodologies to the achievement of generic competences as well as to the academic performance. This study has been carried out at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, where these methodologies have been applied to the Operating Systems I subject of the degree in Technical Engineering in Computer Systems. The fundamental hypothesis tested was whether the implementation of active learning methodologies (cooperative learning and problem based learning) favours the achievement of certain generic competences (‘teamwork’ and ‘planning and time management’) and also whether this fact improved the academic performance of our students. The original approach of this work consists in using psychometric tests to measure the degree of acquired student’s generic competences instead of using opinion surveys, as usual. Results indicated that active learning methodologies improve the academic performance when compared to the traditional lecture/discussion method, according to the success rate obtained. These methods seem to have as well an effect on the teamwork competence (the perception of the behaviour of the other members in the group) but not on the perception of each students’ behaviour. Active learning does not produce any significant change in the generic competence ‘planning and time management'.

Edición semántica inteligente de entornos virtuales

Tradicionalmente, los entornos virtuales se han relacionado o vinculado de forma muy estrecha con campos como el diseño de escenarios tridimensionales o los videojuegos; dejando poco margen a poder pensar en sus aplicaciones en otros ámbitos. Sin embargo, estas tendencias pueden cambiar en tanto se demuestre que las aplicaciones y ventajas de estas facilidades software, se pueden extrapolar a su uso en el ámbito de la enseñanza y el aprendizaje. Estas aplicaciones son los conocidos como Entornos Virtuales Inteligentes (EVI); los cuales, tratan de usar un entorno virtual para llevar a cabo labores de enseñanza y tutoría, aportando ventajas como simulación de entornos peligrosos o tutorización personalizada; cosa que no podemos encontrar en la mayoría de los casos de las situaciones de enseñanza reales. Este trabajo trata de dar solución a una de las problemáticas que se plantean a la hora de trabajar con cualquier entorno virtual con el que nos encontremos y prepararlo para su cometido, sobre todo en aquellos enfocados a la enseñanza: dotar de forma automática e inteligente de una semántica propia a cada uno de los objetos que se encuentran en un entorno virtual y almacenar esta información para su posterior consulta o uso para otras tareas. Esto quiere decir que el objetivo principal de este trabajo, es el proceso de recolección de información que se considera importante de los objetos de los entornos virtuales, como pueden ser sus aspectos de la forma, tamaño o color. Aspectos que, por otra parte, son realmente importantes para poder caracterizar los objetos y hacerlos únicos en un entorno virtual donde, a priori, todos los objetos son los mismos a ojos de un ordenador. Este trabajo que puede parecer trivial en un principio, no lo es tanto; y servirá de sustento fundamental para que otras aplicaciones futuras o ya existentes puedan realizar sus tareas. Una de estas tareas pudiera ser la generación de indicaciones en lenguaje natural para guiar a usuarios a localizar objetos en un entorno virtual, como es el caso del proyecto LORO sobre el que se engloba este trabajo. Algunos ejemplos de uso de esta tarea pueden ser desde ayudar a cualquier usuario a encontrar sus llaves en su propia casa a ayudar a un cirujano a localizar cierta herramienta en un quirófano. Para ello, es indispensable conocer la semántica e información relevante de cada uno de los objetos que se presentan en la escena y diferenciarlos claramente del resto. La solución propuesta se trata de una completa aplicación integrada en el motor de videojuegos y escenarios 3D de mayor soporte del mundo como es Unity 3D, el cual se interrelaciona con ontologías para poder guardar la información de los objetos de cada escena. Esto hace que la aplicación tenga una potencial difusión, gracias a las herramientas antes mencionadas para su desarrollo y a que está pensada para tanto el usuario experto como el usuario común.---ABSTRACT---Traditionally, virtual environments have been related to tridimensional design and videogames; leaving a little margin to think about its applications in other fields. However, this tendencies can be changed as soon as it is proven that the applications and advantages of this software can be taken to the learning and teaching environment. This applications are known as intelligent virtual environments, these use the virtual environment to perform teaching and tutoring tasks; tasks we cannot find in most real life teaching situations. This project aims to give a solution to one of the problematics that appears when someone works with any virtual environments we may encounter and prepare it for its duty, mainly those environments dedicated to teaching: automatically and intelligently give its own semantic to the objects that are in any virtual environment and save this information for its posterior query or use in other tasks. The main purpose of this project is the information recollection process that considers the different important facts about the objects that are in the virtual environments, such as their shape, size or color. Facts that are very important for characterizing the objects; to make them unique in the environment where the objects are all the same to the computer’s eye. This project may seem banal in the beginning, but it is not, it will be the fundamental base for future applications. One of this applications may be a natural language indicator generator for guiding users to locate objects in a virtual environment, such as the LORO project, where this project is included. Some examples of the use of this task are: helping any user to find the keys of his house, helping a surgeon to find a tool in an operation room… For this goals, it is very important to know the semantics and the relevant information of each object of the scenario and differentiate each one of them from the rest. The solution for this proposal is a fully integrated application in the videogame and Unity 3D engine that is related to ontologies so it can save the object’s information in every scenario. The previously mentioned tools, as well as the idea that this application is made for an expert user as well as for a common user, make the application more spreadable.