How To Optimize The Use Of Available Ocw Resources

How to optimize the use of available OCW resources? Consuelo Fernández Jiménez and Laura Hernando Guadaño, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid consuelo.fernandez@upm.es, laura.hernando@upm.es Abstract Even though OCW is not a distance learning initiative or a virtual campus from which accreditations may be obtained, it is a highly effective tool for publication of resources and provides contentthat constitutes in a valuable support for the free training of any user. On the other hand, it is a fact that the teacher's work is crucial to motivate, guide and facilitate students’ learning. Therefore, any attempt to transfer or translate the teacher’s role to the platform will result in an asset to the published materials. With this in mind, a comprehensive review of existing guides or aidsavailable to students in OCW was conducted. This paper intends to incorporate at the beginning of each course, a Student’s Learning Guide. The guide specifies the objectives for each particular topic, describes the tasks that need to be completed in order to achieve them, enumerates the available resources and explains the evaluation system. This structure allows students to understand closely how touse the resource, optimizing the usage and follow-up of the subject. An example of a “Student’s Learning Guide” may be seen in the course of Mechanical Engineers: Kinematics (http://ocw.upm.es/ingenieriamecanica/mecanica-para-ingenieros-cinematica). Thinking of the teacher’s needs, it would be of great interest to include a “Teacher's Learning Guide” with information on teaching and assessmentstrategies; as we know the correct use of materials is decisive in its results. Hence, knowing what they do, how they do it and where they do it, has two clear benefits: 1) it facilitates the reuse of resources in different courses and universities, and 2) it allows the ability to share best practices. Keywords OCW, OpenCourseWare, Tutorial Introduction The primary objective of the OpenCourseWare(OCW) is to provide, through the Internet, free and universal accessibility to teaching materials used at various universities. These materials can be shared by all interested parties, for example, teachers and students. However, the lack of guidance on how to use these materials may diminish their usability. In this paper we describe the experience on the development of the subject EngineeringMecanics: Kinematics (EMK). Its main innovation is based on the incorporation of a“Student’s Learning Guide”. These guides are built in at the beginning of each topic ant its purpose is to guide and accompany students in their learning, encouraging them to complete effectively each course. Context The introduction from 2010 of the European Higher Education Area has set up a new scenario for HigherEducation in Spain, with new academic degrees and a deep methodological update which affects both individuals and institutions. In these times of transition both educational models coexist, the old syllabus and the starting new degrees. This change in the educational system has been progressive and has been organized so

that when a new degree starts the old syllabus teaching finishes. Thus, duringthe 2010/11 academic year, students with pending subjects at first-year courses are entitled to do an exam, but not to a formal teaching. Except in the case of subjects with a high number of students, for whom it has been organized special teaching groups. This later is the case of the subject of Mechanics I. It is a first-year course of the extinguished syllabus of a degree of AeronauticalEngineering at the Polytechnic University of Madrid (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, UPM). It is a common subject to three specialties (Aircraft Vehicles, Aircraft Engines, Aerospace Equipment and Materials). The average number of students enrolled each year is about five hundred and the number of students who do not pass it is about two hundred. It should be noted that, although it has been...