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.

The influence of transparency on self-evaluation as part of the university accreditation process in Peru.

In order to show the choice of transparency as the guiding principle of the accreditation process, the article evaluates its influence on the fundamental subprocess of self-evaluation, thereby confirming that transparency is an essential tool for continuous improvement of academic processes and those of educational quality management. It fosters educational innovation and permits the sustainability of the continuous accreditation process over time, resulting in greater probabilities of university self-regulation through systemization of the process, with the objective of continuous improvement of university degree programs. The article analyzes the influence of transparency on each activity of the self-evaluation process according to the Peruvian accreditation model prepared under the total quality approach, as a reference for other accreditation models, proposing concrete transparency actions and evaluating its influence on the stakeholder groups in the self-evaluation process, as well as on the efficiency and effectiveness of the process. It is concluded that transparency has a positive influence on the training of human capital and the formation of the university?s organizational culture, facilitating dissemination, understanding and involvement of the stakeholder groups in the continuous improvement of accreditation activities and increasing their acceptance of change and commitment to the process. It is confirmed that transparency contributes toward increasing the efficiency index of the self-evaluation process by reducing operating costs through adequate, accessible, timely contribution of information by the stakeholders and through the optimization of the time spent gathering relevant information. In addition, it is concluded that transparency contributes toward increasing the effectiveness index of self-evaluation by facilitating the achievement of its objectives through synthetic, useful, reliable interpretation of the education situation and the formulation of feasible improvement plans based on the adequacy, relevance, visibility, pertinence and truthfulness of the information analyzed.