Teaching Using Collaborative Research Projects: Experiences with Adult Learners in Distance Education

This research studies the acquisition and improvement of specific cognitive, functional, and social competencies of the students enrolled in a university module in which we applied Collaborative Research Project (CRP) strategy. The module was Research Methodology for a master’s degree in research in...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Enrique Rosales Asensio, Sierra García, José Carlos, Pérez Molina, Clara María, Jesús Romero Mayoral, Colmenar Santos, Antonio
Format: article
Publication Date:2021
Country:España
Institution:Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia
Repository:e-spacio. Repositorio Institucional de la UNED
Language:English
OAI Identifier:oai:e-spacio.uned.es:20.500.14468/24970
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14468/24970
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:33 Ciencias Tecnológicas
Online and blended learning and teaching
online open learning environments
open education technologies
learning/teaching methodologies
Description
Summary:This research studies the acquisition and improvement of specific cognitive, functional, and social competencies of the students enrolled in a university module in which we applied Collaborative Research Project (CRP) strategy. The module was Research Methodology for a master’s degree in research in electrical engineering, electronics and industrial control given at the National Distance Education University (UNED) in Spain. This practice was applied to a research project in which the private sector was interested in. We have been aiming at increasing academia–industry interaction while promoting active learning; both are principles advocated by the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). Having applied this strategy, the module learning outcomes were evaluated following the guideline standards set by the National Agency for Quality Assessment of Universities (ANECA) of the Spanish Government. The results from this evaluation indicated that CRP, even when carried out by using distance learning, has encouraged the students’ interest in both research and the module. It has also fostered collaboration between students and lecturers while increasing their degree of satisfaction. We highlight the difficulties in merging all the outcomes from the students’ research as the main drawback.