NEW TEACHING METHOD APPLIED TO HIGHWAY ENGINEERING

Spain is adapting its Higher Education to the EEES, which requires a review of traditional methods of teaching and learning, going from methods based on transmission of knowledge from teacher to student to another based on the acquisition of skills and lifelong learning. This paper presents the results of a study carried out in the Higher Technical School of Civil Engineering of Belmez (University of Cordoba) during the last academic year 2009/2010 applied to Highway Engineering. It has allowed us to compare the traditional method (TM) based on lectures the resolution of numerical problems and final exam, with the innovation method (IM) also based on lectures - solving problems at home that students have to self-assess - continuous assessment exams - the use of virtual tutorials and the use of commercial software on design of roads. The number of students passing with the innovation method is much higher than with the traditional method, and students obtain better final marks. We assessed the level of students' satisfaction with the innovation method, the most valuable teaching activity for the acquisition of skills according to them being the problem-solving in class by the teacher, but the use of software to solve real problems and give virtual tutorials has been less valued than expected. Working hours of the students (ECTS) were measured with weekly surveys.