Educational innovation is a key factor to improve educational goals and learning outcomes. There are very good practices in different contexts that may be reused and adapted in other ones, however... Show More

Educational innovation is a key factor to improve educational goals and learning outcomes. There are very good practices in different contexts that may be reused and adapted in other ones, however these good practices are difficult to find and share, this means teachers repeat again and again the same “innovative” practices with local results and an overall idea of reinventing the wheel than produce a valuable improvement or adaptation of an existing practice. This is the second part of a special issue that is devoted to share some interesting teaching practices that may be adopted and adapted in other different contexts and subjects. In this second part of the special aspects as metaverses, entrepreneurship practices, portfolios and gamification issues are going to be presented.

As a way of reinforcing classroom-based lessons, especially for continuous evaluation, we experimented with remote conferences and tutoring. These seminars were directed at three different groups of... Show More

As a way of reinforcing classroom-based lessons, especially for continuous evaluation, we experimented with remote conferences and tutoring. These seminars were directed at three different groups of students: those who are struggling with the subject, those who were unable to attend all the lessons, and those seeking deeper insight. We experimented with different platforms for computer-assisted learning and with teaching through metaverses (Second Life and Open Sims). We experienced better results with the latter rather than with the platforms specially designed for computer-assisted learning. The metaverse sessions were also used as videos, recording the screen to later become part of the videos used for remote teaching. The sessions were also used to broadcast live conferences to people who were unable to attend them in person. A brief analysis was made of the videos' usefulness for teaching, combined with conferences, seminars through metaverses, etc.

This teaching system was built on materials prepared by experts in biotechnology and management with the contribution of the students themselves, engendered by their discussions about real life... Show More

This teaching system was built on materials prepared by experts in biotechnology and management with the contribution of the students themselves, engendered by their discussions about real life based business situations. This system is fully supported by the resources available within the Moodle platform, especially the adaptability of content depending on the profile of the students. But this system goes beyond this. It promotes constant teacher-student and student-student interaction; it achieves this by using all the possibilities offered by the network, by using an approach that stimulates participation in different forums and recommends a series of scheduled tasks based upon the company they work for. The goal of this system is to organize and take advantage of all the available knowledge, and especially that which the students themselves build in each edition, so that the following edition participants can profit from it.

The portfolio has gathered pace in recent years, being a useful tool for teaching and assessment. The main goal is to improve learning through student reflection and continuous feedback of... Show More

The portfolio has gathered pace in recent years, being a useful tool for teaching and assessment. The main goal is to improve learning through student reflection and continuous feedback of evaluations. The implantation of information technology has facilitated the introduction of the electronic portfolio (e-portfolio). Based on previous experience with portfolios, it was decided to implement it in some subjects within Medicine and Dentistry in the Department. The objectives of the study (2009-2013) have been assessing the response to its introduction, assess student satisfaction and determine the extra load imposed on the teaching process. The topic has focused on clinical skills of students, using the e-portfolio Mahara®, installed on the Virtual Campus of Barcelona University. There have been 1241 e-portfolios and 1611 email exchanges between teachers and students. All assessment is carried out on-line (average response time 48 hours, 40 minutes /portfolio). Satisfaction surveys show a high level of acceptance by the students. This allows one to conclude that the e-portfolio has proven to be a good teaching tool, presenting a high degree of compliance and satisfaction among students, encouraging student-teacher relationships.

This paper describes the use of gamification and visual technologies in a classroom for higher education, specifically for university students. The goal is to achieve a major increase in student... Show More

This paper describes the use of gamification and visual technologies in a classroom for higher education, specifically for university students. The goal is to achieve a major increase in student motivation and engagement through the use of various technologies and learning methodologies based on game mechanics called gamification. Gamification is used to engage students in the learning process. This study adds learning methodologies like Learning by Doing to students' collaborative work, and mixes teacher support with new, accessible technology, such as virtual reality and visualization 3D on the web thanks to webGL. This creates a new management tool, called GLABS, to assist in the gamification of the classroom. Understanding the role of gamification and the technology in education means understanding under what circumstances game elements can drive a student's learning behavior so that he or she may achieve better results in the learning process.