The Future of Education

New teaching methodologies are based on a new student’s role changing from a passive (only receiving and storing knowledge) to an active role in which the student takes part in knowledge generation. Polytechnic University of Valencia is pioneering the development and use of new teaching tools that can help student in the knowledge generation. One of these tools is the use of learning modules. Learning modules allow the student to play an active role in the teaching process. A learning module consists on an ensemble of different elements in a multimedia platform focused on a particular topic in a subject. These elements include a table of contents, text and graphical information, auto evaluation tests, proposal of problems, learning objects and hyperlinks among others. The main aim of these learning modules is to provide an interaction tool for the student to go in depth in a particular topic. The text is written a direct style with expressions such as “Now that you know these concept, then try to solve this problem”, “Come on, follow this link to check your advances”, “Please, watch this video and answer the following questions”, and similar to increase interaction. One important element in a learning module is presence of several learning objects (LO). A learning object is a video explanation with a synchronized power point presentation and the teacher himself speaking about a part or section of a learning module. The video format allows some interactivity and contributes to knowledge formation. Another important element in a learning module is a final problem that the student must solve using all the concepts studied in the module; this problem can be used to evaluate the student’s progression, detect difficulties in learning and reinforce the teaching process with appropriate explanations. Learning modules represent an attracting tool in engineering as they provide an interactive platform between the teacher and the student that can help the student to generate his own knowledge with an appropriate guidance by the teacher. The use of a multimedia platform with different multimedia elements such as graphics, texts, hyperlinks, videos, tests, solved problems, etc. makes it easier to learn complex topics in engineering. Thus, learning modules can be very useful in the teaching-learning process; the success of this tool is directly related to an active role by the student and appropriate guidance by the teacher leading to synergistic results.