• Dr. Renato Chávez and biochemists Luis Figueroa and Javiera Norambuena were honored at the 5^th Congress of European Microbiologists, in Leipzig (Germany) for their research on bioactive compounds from Antarctic marine sponges, which present a high microbial, antitumor and antioxidant activity.

The study’s innovation and impact and the results shown were the reasons for giving the Best Poster Presentation Award to the study conducted by a team of researchers from Universidad de Santiago and Universidad de Chile in one of the most important events worldwide in the field of Microbiology: the Federation of European Microbiological Societies Congress, FEMS 2013.

The research team is composed of Dr. Renato Chávez, researcher from the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology, Universidad de Santiago, and the biochemists Luis Figueroa and Javiera Norambuena, also from Universidad de Santiago, together with other specialists from Universidad de Chile. They conducted the study for three years.

The study is based on the analysis of new bioactive compounds, present in filamentous fungi of Antarctic marine sponges. These compounds show a high microbial, antitumor and antioxidant activity.

Discovering these new species and their properties, supported by the required laboratory research, could lead to potential applications in Biotechnology, especially in the field of Pharmacology.

Regarding the study’s development, biochemist Javiera Norambuena says that, in order to find these bioactive compounds, it was necessary to search poorly explored places, as in those places there are more possibilities of finding non-cultured organisms. “That is the reason why we isolated fungi from Antarctic marine sponges, which usually have chemical compounds containing secondary metabolites; that is to say, they are not required for the organism’s survival, but they give it advantages over other members of the population”, she adds.

Regarding the study’s results, biochemist Luis Figueroa notes, “a high percentage of the isolated fungi could not be identified, which suggested the existence of new genera in the microbial community from Antarctic marine sponges; therefore, we can conclude that the fungi community in the Antarctic marine sponges studied is completely different from the one in common marine sponges.”

“We are on the right track”

Dr. Renato Chávez, researcher and professor of Faculty of Chemistry and Biology, says, “The honor awarded confirms that our work with fungi from Antarctic sponges is of international interest.”

“The award confirms that regarding the study of Antarctic marine eukaryotes (fungi and yeasts), we are on the right track, what encourages us to continue in this line. We are aware that we are dealing with new species that have not been described yet, so describing them is among our next goals. Also, we know that these species produce chemicals with very interesting properties that could be used in the Biotechnology field. As for the students participating, this award is most certainly an incentive for them as young researchers,” Dr. Chávez adds.

The full research team that took part in the poster presentation is made up by undergraduate and graduate students from Faculty of Sciences, Universidad de Chile: Marlene Henríquez, Ivanna Araya, Andrea Beiza and Karen Vergara, while the work presented at the Congress is supported by Fondecyt Project 11090192, conducted by Dr. Inmaculada Vaca, from Universidad de Chile.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• Dr. Gonzalo Acuña was elected president of the Chilean representation at the Computational Intelligence Society, which is part of the world’s largest professional and technical association in this field. Also, professor Acuña became Chile’s representative at the Latin American Computational Intelligence Society.

An academic of Universidad de Santiago’s Department of Informatics Engineering, Dr. Gonzalo Acuña Leiva, will preside for two years the Computational Intelligence Society (CIS) Chile Chapter, which is part of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the world’s largest professional and technical association dedicated to advancing technological innovation and excellence for the benefit of humanity.

Dr. Acuña was elected president of the Chilean representation of the IEEE-CIS, one of the world´s most renowned and traditional organizations, as it was the first organization founded in this field after the American chapters of computational intelligence and is made up of, at least, sixty academic members from different universities.

“Computational Intelligence relates to the ability developed by computers, for example, to imitate nature or biological processes,” Dr. Acuña says, pointing out that this field includes neural networks and genetic algorithms inspired by biological processes or the animal world, like the ants’ methods to solve problems or the flight of birds.

Although the IC concept seems to be related to Informatics, Dr. Acuña says that it has to do with dynamical systems and mathematical models and not necessarily with programming.

Computational Intelligence is not Artificial Intelligence

Dr. Acuña says that the concept of Computational Intelligence should not be taken for Artificial Intelligence, as the former refers to “mathematically modeled ideas that help to solve optimization problems and other engineering works. It refers to mathematical tools that are commonly used by computer programmers to solve different problems, as they can be applied to all imaginable fields.”

Dr. Acuña has been working in this field for several years and he has specialized in the study of neural networks, interconnection systems inspired by the animal nervous system functioning and SVM (Support Vector Machines), a group of supervised learning algorithms that can be applied to different areas.

At present, the academic is leading a Fondef project where he is applying this knowledge to mining industry.

“With this Computational Intelligence tools we are building predictive models for the availability of physical assets in mining industry, like shovels, large trucks or the enormous equipment required for mining operations that involve high maintenance costs. Therefore, if we are able to anticipate the equipment availability, mining industry can improve preventive maintenance and reduce costs,” Dr. Acuña explains.

Youngsters and Latin America

About his recent nomination as president of the IEEE-CIS Chile Chapter, Dr. Acuña says that the efforts are oriented to promote the Chapter and to motivate young people through CI Summer Schools, which are “the ideal opportunity for students preparing their dissertation work to participate, as leading figures in this field give presentations and many of our members offer tutorial sessions. It is the occasion when we meet as a community.”

Finally, there is also news about this field at a regional level, as two weeks ago, in a congress held at Bariloche, the Latin American Computational Intelligence Society was founded, where Dr. Acuña and an investigator from Universidad de la Frontera were appointed national representatives.


Translated by Marcela Contreras
 

• Claudia Matus and Bárbara Ossandón, both professors at the Physics and Mathematics Teaching program of Universidad de Santiago de Chile, presented a novel initiative for the academic field at the International Educational Summit 2016: XII Conference on Higher Education Management.

Claudia Matus and Bárbara Ossandón, both professors at the Physics and Mathematics Teaching program of Universidad de Santiago, had a remarkable participation at the International Educational Summit 2016: XII Conference on Higher Education Management.

This activity has become one of the most important meetings for exchanging experiences at a management level among higher education institutions in Latin America, with the participation of renowned international experts.

The conference was held at the Casa Central of Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and professors Matus and Ossandón presented their work “Comunidad Práctica de Aprendizaje como elemento clave de gestión en el rediseño curricular de una carrera de pedagogía.”

“We designed a new innovative curriculum that based its pedagogical principles on a spiral modular design that involves the integration of theory and practice and is focused on the classroom activity and the student,” professor Ossandón explained.

She highlighted “the need of understanding curriculum management through an interdisciplinary team work and professional management. This means to strengthen the role of the head of the program and
distribute his/her tasks in four coordinations: practice, teaching, laboratories, and outreach and engagement. This last coordination has the purpose of providing feedback on the curriculum.”

“This interdisciplinary learning community that works collaboratively is made up of physics and mathematics teachers focused on didactics; an anthropologist, and other professionals,” she said. It is a group of committed people working in an environment where interdisciplinary collaborative work is usually understood as the sum of individual works,” she said.

“The strength of this initiative is the new design of the curriculum of the Physics and Mathematics Teaching program that allowed us to be accredited for seven years,” she added.

Conclusions

“What we want to share is the idea that, to achieve curriculum innovation, the line-up of collaborative interdisciplinary work teamsis very important in order to make the program management a profesional activity, as well as to encourage constant self-evaluation, what will result in constant improvement,” Professor Ossandón said.

The conference “helped us to validate the pedagogical principles of our program according to the different presentations given that addressed the latest trends in education that, in turn, allowed us to validate our own community, our team made up of the four coordinations. Besides, it enriched even more our pedagogical learning proposal,” she said.

“This activity is also an example of learning practice community,because on this occasion we learned about an education research network. This network is formed by universities in four continents and

it was created by the initiative of different communities, as the most advanced way of distributed leadership in the knowledge society, as Hargreaves said. This conference is a learning practice community
itself,” she added.

“We propose a professional, pro-active approach, where the head of the program can conduct research works with collaborative teams in the medium and long term,” she concluded.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

Providing basic knowledge about human cerebral cortex development at embryonic and early fetal stage is the goal of the research project led by Dr. Lorena Sulz, which will be conducted during the next three years.

According to reports, some psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, begin during embryonic development. Most of the studies on this topic have been conducted on animal samples, due to ethical restraints and limited access to human embryos. This is the reason why the field of human embryology related to neurology is an area which has not been thoroughly explored.

In this context, Dr. Lorena Sulz, academic of Universidad de Santiago’s School of Medicine, will carry out the study “Role of nitric oxide in human cerebral cortex morphogenesis”, which intends to gather critical information about the mechanisms involved in the development of nerve cells during the first weeks of pregnancy.

The study will be conducted during the next three years and is funded by the Scientific and Technological Research Department (Dicyt) of Universidad de Santiago. It is a unique study as it is the first time that this branch of embryology involves human samples, which were obtained from de Institution’s Embryo-Fetology collection.

The idea is to gather basic knowledge about this topic in order to explain if the presence of nitric oxide is also essential for producing new nerve cells in human cortex, as it has already been proved in animal samples and in neuronal regeneration processes, both in human beings and mice. “We want to know if this molecule is expressed in the cerebral cortex being developed and identify in what areas and at what stages it is present. In this way, we can infer approximately the process in which it is involved,” the academic explains.

The study will be carried out in two stages. The first one will completely focus on the morphological analysis of cells and embryos being used. This stage, which is under execution at this moment, will allow describing the human cerebral cortex development process. After identifying each phase, the second stage will allow identifying cells that produce nitric oxide and the process in which it would be involved.

The study will be conducted at the Embryology Unit of the Faculty of Medical Sciences, Universidad de Santiago, led by Dr. Jaime Pereda, the project`s co-investigator, M.S. Carlos Godoy and Dr. Sulz. The three professionals, experts in their areas of research interest, complement each other’s work in a way that has helped to a good execution of their projects. “In general, the three of us work together because we use very similar techniques: only the molecule and the body organ of interest are different. We have adjusted to each other very well,” Dr. Sulz adds.

However, the expectations are long-term. The research seeks to establish some theoretical basis for human cerebral cortex development, in order to develop new studies on this topic. The results will be presented in different papers in specialized publications and in different congresses and conferences.

Finally, Dr. Lorena Sulz expects that during the research, they will be able to prove that nitric oxide takes part in human cerebral cortex development, just like it does in laboratory animals. “As it is basic science, it only provides a knowledge base. But if nitric oxide is known to be significant in cerebral cortex development, further care should be taken so as not to interrupt this process during the critical period, preventing potential malformations. This additional knowledge could be a contribution to prenatal care,” the researcher concludes.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• Professor Saúl Contreras, academic at the Department of Education, is developing the Fondecyt Project “Early Teacher Training for Science Education” that seeks to analyze the academic performance of 1,200 Teaching Training Program students across the country to contribute with an explanatory model on how future teachers internalize and implement their curricular teaching knowledge.
• According to professor Contreras, this instrument will put a strain on the Inicia Test,” because the latter evaluates future teachers at the end of their training. “Our idea is to evaluate students during all their training process,” to obtain a comprehensive and timely knowledge about it.
• Professor Contreras presented the first results of this study at international conferences in Tarragona and Barcelona, Spain.

The quality of education is today a core topic in the public policies debate and it has become one of the key demands of different social sectors.

But this quality is affected by different variables, like the good or poor education received by those who will be responsible for teaching new generations, that is to say, Early Teaching Training, (FDI, in Spanish). This is why Dr. Saúl Contreras, PhD in Education of Universidad de Santiago de Chile is working on the project “Early Teaching Training for Science Education”, funded by Fondecyt, that seeks to create a model and an instrument to evaluate the training process of pre-service teachers. As a result, this would allow training institutions to review the decision making process regarding training matters.

The study considers a national sample of 1,200 trainee teachers in math and experimental science specializations. The research team led by Dr. Contreras will do the corresponding follow up for four years.

“We seek to create a model and an instrument to explain how students acquire teaching competences and skills. In the context of the study, we are going to provide important data to each participating institution,” Dr. Contreras says. He adds that this information will be very useful to correct the course of early teacher training.

“It will put a strain on the INICIA Test”

Professor Contreras claims that among the side effects of this study, “it will put a strain on the Inicia Test,” the voluntary test to evaluate graduate teachers in different contents. “It does not make any sense to expect a quality education by thinking that we can achieve it just through measuring instruments like Simce, PSU or the Inicia Test.”

Professor Contreras also stresses that the Inicia Test evaluates pre-service teachers at the end of their training programs. “We propose to have a systematic assessment instrument during the whole training process and not only at the end of it. Because we should ask ourselves if the results of the Inicia Test are not good and the students already graduated, what happen to them? Should we give them remedial courses? It is too late to do it”, he answers.

For all the above, the instrument studied by this researcher at Universidad de Santiago de Chile becomes essential, because, according to Professor Contreras, it is not about preparing students like pre-university schools do: it is “creating and applying an instrument to evaluate future teachers at certain time points during their training. And this is a decision of the institutions that internally choose to help their students.”

Regarding the assessment tests, Dr. Contreras says that he totally agrees with their application, “otherwise it would be impossible to know how we are doing,” but these instruments should be developed “together with the subjects and starting with them, because they also need to be relevant,” he explains.

Professor Contreras is so convinced of the effectiveness of his proposal that he does not doubt that, after applying the assessment instrument for four years, it may be applied at a national level, in the context of a public policy. He thinks that it “can also be implemented in the technical- professional formation.”

Although the first stage of collection of data was finished only a few weeks ago- with the collaboration of teacher training programs of universities from Arica to Punta Arenas- professor Contreras presented the first results of this project at the International Congress of University Teaching and Innovation (CIDIU, in Spanish), held at Tarragona, Spain and then, at the Edulearn VI International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies, in Barcelona, Spain.

These first steps allow seeing significant changes in future teachers’ training that, in the end, will affect the quality of education.

 

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• Dr Paola Arias, together with her research team, will search for signals of new particles in cosmological observations and lab experiments, in the context of a Fondecyt Regular project 2016. Currently, there are independent efforts worldwide oriented to this search; the team’s goal is to propose new and better detection techniques.

The search for new particles has been in the general interest for a long time. The most popular example in this field of study is the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world’s largest particle collider that allows studying the elements which are part of the matter that forms the Universe. However, the mysteries hidden in the vastness of the Cosmos are countless, like the ones in the “dark sector”, which is formed by particles that cannot be easily observed, because they do not interact with our detectors; we only see their gravitational effects, as in the case of dark matter.

“Our project will look for particles different from the ones than one may expect to find in the LHC, as they would distinctively have a very little mass. Currently, there are independent efforts worldwide oriented to this search, but our goal is to propose new and better detection techniques,” Dr Arias explains. The research team in charge of this Fondecyt Regular project (1161150) “Looking for signatures of a hidden sector” is made up of scientists from Argentina, Germany, Spain and Switzerland.

According to professor Arias, their work is based on observational evidence in this field of study that suggests that the Universe has a higher content of particles if compared to what we see now. She explains that this information has led to the formulation of different theoretical models on the properties of these new particles and predictions about how we could watch them.

“Technological progress has been possible thanks to the knowledge and understanding of the world around us,” she adds. “Particle Physics is a basic science and its purpose is to understand the Universe where we live in. For now, we cannot measure how this will contribute to society. As we still have not learned about the intrinsic nature of these new particles, we do not know how they can be a contribution in the future. Undoubtedly, understanding the Universe is a question that has fascinated mankind since its origins.” 

For Dr Arias, being part of the Department Of Physics at Universidad de Santiago de Chile has been a great experience. "The level of the research work at the university is very high and we expect to continue strengthening it,” she concludes.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• The research, led by Dr. Miguel Maldonado, professor at the Metallurgical Engineering Department, intends to optimize this process through new on-line air measurement equipment.

During the last couple of years, we have heard about a decline in copper production, and according to experts this is one of the reasons why the quality of the mineral has been reduced. One way to revert this situation is improving mining procedures, which is a priority for mining industry.

One of these processes is flotation, a method used to separate valuable minerals like copper from others. The process starts once the rock is ground and mixed with water to form a pulp. Some reagents that modify the mineral surface are added to this mixture. In this way, when bubbles of air are forced up through the pulp, they collide with particles and the ones containing copper, for example, go up to the surface making a froth rich in valuable mineral, ready to be removed.

This is the method studied by Dr. Miguel Maldonado, professor at the Metallurgical Engineering Department. “Although today improvements have been made to flotation process- by means of devices that measure the air flow forced into a flotation equipment or the use of cameras that continuously monitor de physical properties of the froth- we still do not have a full knowledge of how air dispersion in the bubbles affects the metallurgical performance of the process,” the researcher said.

This encouraged the academic to do a research project called “Estimating on-line air concentration in flotation systems,” funded by the Scientific and Technological Research Department (Dicyt) of Universidad de Santiago.

“We believe that this variable is important when determining the process performance, as it is related to the surface area available to collect the particles containing valuable mineral and, therefore, to the complete recovery of copper,” the researcher explained.

The researcher said that the project was born while he was doing his postdoctoral research in Canada, at McGill University, considered a pioneer institution in proposing ways of measuring this variable. At that time, while he was studying this technique, he found out a problem with the interpretation of Maxwell’s equation, which would lead to a measurement error.

For this reason, the academic decided to insist on seeking new techniques in order to solve the problem; this time, with a better knowledge of the system.

At the first stage of the research, essential aspects of the error made will be studied. For this purpose, experiments to get a better understanding of the Maxwell’s equation will be performed. McGill University will also take part in this research by sending a flotation column to support the study and by developing papers together about this topic.

At the second stage, new techniques will be explored to find a method that estimates the air concentration in real time, in order to control and optimize the process.

In the academic’s opinion, “the efficient recovery of valuable minerals like copper is very important, and this measurement method could provide significant information for optimizing the process. This will have all kinds of benefits, such as reducing the reagents added or reducing the water used. This fact is also important if we consider that in most mining operations the water resource is scarce.”

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• In order to meet the goals set by Universidad de Santiago in the context of the “Sustainable Campus” Clean Production Agreement, the University Social Responsibility program developed the first training workshop on this matter, oriented to students, academics and administrative staff.
• The initiative is one of the institutional actions to promote the knowledge on sustainability and to meet the goal of reducing the use of energy by 5% in the campus before March 2015, according to Santiago Peredo, RSU program’s alternate Director.
• The next workshop- on composting and vegetable gardens management- is scheduled for August. Also, the RSU program will hold seminars on the topics stemmed from the Institutional Sustainability Reports: human rights, decent work conditions, universal access to people with different skills, healthy eating and energy efficiency.

“People have become aware of environmental or sustainability matters. What we must manage now is to change some behaviors and develop some habits to be consistent with this already existing awareness,” Santiago Peredo, alternate Director of the University Social Responsibility (RSU, in Spanish) program said at the end of the first training workshop, “Self-diagnosis of energy use in buildings”, that was held by academics of Universidad de Santiago, on Friday 11th.

The workshop is part of the institutional actions to meet the goals set in the “Sustainable Campus” Clean Production Agreement (APL, in Spanish) of 2013, that seek to "promote training in this matter for professionals, students and academics of the University, and, in turn, to meet the goal of reducing the use of energy by 5% in the campus, before March 2015,” the RSU program’s alternate Director explained.

The workshop included two talks about energy efficiency. The first one was given by Professor Juan Araya, of the Bachillerato program, and the second one, by Professor Fernando Corvalán, of the Department of Geographical Engineering.

Professor Araya referred to the concept of sustainability in three interrelated aspects: environment, society and economy. The balance among the three of them becomes the sustainability equation. Professor Corvalán talked about energy efficiency in buildings, stressing the current actions taken in the building sector to save energy and the analysis of important supplementary aspects like heating, refrigeration and supply systems.

Regarding the campus, Dr. Corvalán explained that it was built according to standards that were not concerned for energy saving, such as the former EAO building and the buildings around the Planetarium. However, he emphasized that the new buildings mean an opportunity for energy sustainability.

Students, academics, professionals and administrative staff from the five units that voluntarily signed the University’s APL took part in the workshop: the Department of Geographical Engineering, the Technological Faculty, the Faculty of Administration and Economics, the Bachillerato program and the School of Architecture.

Waste management and vegetable gardens

“We prepared this series of workshops to meet the goals of training in sustainability and reducing the use of energy at the University, among others,” the RSU program’s alternate Director reiterated, as this is one of the actions established in the “Sustainable Campus” Clean Production Agreement.

The next workshop is scheduled for August and it will be about composting and vegetable gardens management, “because another goal is to reduce the solid waste produced at the University and this action could lead to new recycling processes that are not implemented now.”

“There are some initiatives to collect paper and glass in some recycling spots. We still have pending the organic waste treatment, as it is collected by an external service. The idea is that the University takes charge of the organic waste management and one way to do it is composting and the use of vegetable gardens,” Santiago Peredo added.

Pending tasks

Together with the sustainability workshops, the RSU program is planning continuous seminars that will include presentations and debates on five of the topics stemmed from the Institutional Sustainability Reports (2008-2012): human rights, decent work conditions, universal access to people with different skills, healthy eating and energy efficiency.

These five aspects are the ones that the reports have shown as weaknesses or needs. In these seminars open to the community that the RSU program plans to give every first Tuesday of the month (from August to December), the participants will evaluate the aspects that could be addressed in the workshops, according to the interests of the community.

 

Translated by Marcela Contreras

•     Physical Review Letters (PRL) will publish an article about this important development in the control of chemical reactions using quantum optics. In simple terms, Dr Herrera, researcher at Universidad de Santiago, explains that they proved that these reactions or electron transfers can be accelerated or reduced.

At the end of the month, the renowned American journal of Physics, Physical Review Letters (PRL) of the American Physical Society (APS), will publish an important discovery in this field made by Dr Felipe Herrera, professor at the Department of Physics of Universidad de Santiago de Chile, and Dr Francis C. Spano, professor at Temple University in Philadelphia, USA.

The article (“Cavity-controlled chemistry in molecular ensembles”) will highlight the development made by these researchers in the control of chemical reactions by means of quantum physics. In simple terms, Dr Herrera explains that they proved that these reactions or electron transfers can be accelerated or reduced.

Graphically, the model consists of an optical cavity surrounded by two mirrors that do not allow light to go through, “so the amount of energy is the minimum possible in an electromagnetic field. That is to say, there is cero or one unit of light energy, which is also called photon,” Dr Herrera explains.

Dr Herrera remembers that, at a first stage, they asked themselves about “the effects that the optical cavity could have on chemical reactions or electron transfers: if the cavity would accelerate them, suppress them or if nothing would happen at all.”

In this context, the researcher says that they finally “found a mechanism through which this quantum optical cavity can dramatically accelerate the reaction and electron transfer in molecules.”

The basics

With regards to this theoretical discovery, Dr Herrera explains the process: “First, there are two players: the electron that is going to be transferred and the vibration of the molecules that, in a way, affect how this electron is going to be transferred from one place to another. If there is too much vibration, the electron will be disturbed and the transfer will be inefficient.”

“When you add another factor, like the optical cavity, there is a third player: the photon, which will now interact with the electron inside the cavity,” he says.  

“We discovered that quantized light plays a game in which the electron becomes a photon and the photon turns again into an electron and vice versa. The game only occurs inside the cavity and it makes the electron to stop interacting with the vibration, eliminating or blocking vibrations,” he explains. 

With regard to what material inside the cavity accelerates or reduces the electron transfer, Dr Herrera says that they have tested organic materials or organic molecules, like the ones that form the human body. “This organic material could also be a protein, according to the experiments conducted by other researchers that have based their studies on our discovery,” he adds.

Physical Review Letters

The article about this development was first published in the online edition of Physical Review Letters and, at the end of June, it will be published in the print edition. Dr Herrera says this is a great honor for them, as this journal is the most prestigious one in the field of Physics.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• The Academic Vice President, Fernanda Kri, said that after testing the pilot program in more than a thousand students of the Faculty of Engineering, the system that combines on-line learning opportunities with face-to-face sessions, proved to work in a similar way to a traditional course. “The goal is to implement this system for all our undergraduate programs in the first semester 2014, according to our Institutional Strategic Plan, which stipulates the promotion of the English language among our students,” Vice President Kri said.

In April this year, our University’s Academic Vice Presidency, together with the Consejo Superior de Docencia (the consulting body to the Academic Vice Presidency) and the Educational Innovation Unit started implementing an English language B-Learning pilot program for students of the Faculty of Engineering in order to evaluate the system’s operation and extend its application to other undergraduate programs of Universidad de Santiago.

The B-Learning method combines on-line content delivery with face-to-face sessions. It was implemented with the support of our University’s Department of Linguistics and Literature for one thousand and fifty students during one semester.

After concluding this first evaluation stage, the results proved to be very positive; hence, the academic authority started promoting its implementation in all undergraduate programs, according to one of the goals of the Institutional Strategic Plan, which stipulates the promotion of the English language among the students.

On November 27th, the Academic Vice President, Fernanda Kri, had a meeting with the academic community to inform about the results of this first B-Learning experience. She described it as “successful”, both logistically and academically.

“We confirmed that students who participated in B-Learning lessons acquired and English language knowledge similar to the one acquired in one semester of face-to-face sessions,” she said.

Due to this positive evaluation, the Academic Vice President invited all undergraduate programs to be part of the initiative.

“The purpose of the meeting (held on November 27th) was to show these results to the different faculties, hoping that most of them will join in this project and include it formally in the programs’ curricula as of March 2014,” she said.

“We expect all students at the University reach at least an intermediate level of English and for that to happen, they need to take four consecutive English courses, lasting one semester each, as this is the only way of having continuity in learning,” she added.

Vice President Kri concluded by saying that, besides the good results, “Students showed themselves very motivated for using technological tools and for learning English early in their programs. All this gives us good expectations about the contribution that this project may be to our community once it is extended to all undergraduate programs and, in the future, to graduate programs.”
 
The details about a successful program

Ricardo Úbeda, professor at the Department of Linguistics and Literature, who is in charge of the program, informed that out of one thousand and fifty students who took the B-Learning course, 182 passed the initial diagnostic test and were exempt from the final test, while 744 students totally passed the course.

Another announcement was the implementation of more mechanisms to allow the interaction between students and teachers, like Skype, that can help to solve questions in a direct way.

“Finally, with this course, all our expectations were met and we were able to see the high level of commitment that the students of our University have with their integral learning process,” professor Úbeda stressed during the presentation of the results of this B-Learning system.

Translated by Marcela Contreras.