Virtual Learning Environments In Faculties Of Education In Spain: Changes On Student Attitude

This paper presents some results of a R+D project entitled “e-Learning system for Practical Training of University students in Education Faculties (ForELearn)”, developed in Spain by the Universidad de Granada and the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and funded by the Spanish Ministry of Education. In a first phase, through the use of AulaWeb Learning Management System, a set of adaptations and improvements of this software application have been done for the design and development of an experimental course of Practicum supervision. Next, the implementation of this course by means of a group of face to face and online seminars provides experimental data for the analysis and discussion about the point of view of users (preservice teachers) that have tracked their practice supervision with AulaWeb.

A hands-on education project: antenna design for inter-CubeSat communications

CubeSat platforms have become a de facto standard for universities willing to initiate space-technology activities with students. These small satellite platforms ease the implementation of hands-on education projects and opening the apertures of new research areas. Moreover, due to the limited volume (a 10 cm cube) and power (1 W), the application of imaginative solutions is mandatory. This leads to new innovation processes in the course of CubeSat projects. In this paper, we present a hands-on education project the aim of which is the specification, design, building and measurement of an antenna for communication between nanosatellites and, in particular, CubeSats. The project lies within the framework of ETSIT-UPM innovative education activities in the area of space technology, where students play a leading role in real engineering projects.

An online e-Learning authoring tool to create interactive multi-device learning objects using e-Infrastructure resources

Education can take advantage of e-Infrastructures to provide teachers with new opportunities to increase students' motivation and engagement while they learn. Nevertheless, teachers need to find, integrate and customize the resources provided by e-Infrastructures in an easy way. This paper presents ViSH Editor, an innovative web-based e-Learning authoring tool that aims to allow teachers to create new learning objects using e-Infrastructure resources. These new learning objects are called Virtual Excursions and are created as reusable, granular and interoperable learning objects. This way they can be reused to build new ones and they can be integrated in websites or Learning Management Systems. Details about the design, development and the tool itself are explained in this paper as well as the concept, structure and metadata of the new learning objects. Lastly, some real examples of how to enrich learning using Virtual Excursions are exposed.