DESIGN OF A COLLABORATIVE LEARNING TOOL TO IMPROVE THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN VEGETABLE FOOD TECHNOLOGY COURSE FOR THE DEGREE IN FOOD SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Resumen

Collaborative learning (CL) is an educational approach that involves groups of students working together with the purpose of solving issues, completing tasks, or creating products. It is recognized as an effective teaching-learning method which is increasingly used in a variety of disciplines at the University level as it has demonstrated social, physiological and academic benefits. CL is currently being used in Vegetable Food Technology course in the Degree in Food Science and Technology. This is a compulsory subject which is taught in the third year of the degree and has a workload of 6 ECTS. It repeatedly has a high percentage of failed students, around 40% each year. However, despite this high number of failures, students show a notable interest in the subject, as reflected in the score of 8.5 in the latest surveys conducted. Among the activities proposed, students in small groups must carry out an assignment on a specific topic given by the lecturer and present it to their classmates. After presentations, discussion rounds are established in which the lecturer acts as moderator. However, the level of involvement of the students with this activity and the general academic performance in this subject are low. Games can contribute to improving student engagement, which is strongly linked to student achievement. Therefore a project has been developed for teaching-learning Vegetable Food Technology course based on CL and gaming. The project has consisted of the design of different activities based on small groups of students collaborating in the creation of a quiz game, with the objective of helping them to understand the different technological processes in vegetable food manufacturing. It is expected that this new collaborative approach will facilitate learning, increase the motivation, involvement and satisfaction of the students as well as their academic results. This project is developed within the framework of an Innovative Educational Project of Universidad Complutense de Madrid.