Diagnostic and assessment of specific and transversal competences in Chemistry studies in a distance education program

Abstract

[EN] The current socioeconomic conditions require highly educated professional with new curricula requirements and new skills, professionals with initiative and abilities able to be adapted to different situations and contexts. Consequently, the university education system must ensure that students achieve competences that involve the combination of knowledge, attitudes and values that enable a qualified person to undertake the resolution of problems or able to evolve in a new professional or social context. To achieve this goal, universities must find and use the most suitable tools to adapt and create higher education programs to respond to the needs of today’s society, tuning academic and professional profiles. On the other hand, there is a significant growth of enrolling students in distance education universities and several distance education programs are available in most universities. Thus, the aim of this communication is to share the results obtained during the development of a teaching innovation project, which assessed interdisciplinary, specific and transversal competences, by means of a post-task objective test, in the Chemistry undergraduate studies at the National University of Distance Education, (UNED) of Spain. The results of this study have allowed to the professors board to analyse and assess the competences acquired by the students, pointing out the main deficiencies to be solved by re-designing the teaching activities and methodologies to ensure a complete success.