1. Sustituir por Título de Presentación (Pasos: Ver/Patrón/Patrón de Diapositivas) Portada EXPERIENCES IN E-LEARNING AND B- LEARNING IN BOTANICAL SCIENCES (MYCOLOGY, WEED SCIENCE AND PLANT PATHOLOGY) IN LOCAL AND REGIONAL VIRTUAL CAMPUSES. REFLECTIONS ON THE SCOPE OF THE EURO-MEDITERRANEAN AND GLOBAL LEVEL E. Gallego, J. Sánchez University of Almeria (SPAIN) egallego@ual.es; josanche@ual.es Universidad de Almería

2. Sustituir por Título de Presentación (Pasos: Ver/Patrón/Patrón de Diapositivas) Portada Universidad de Almería OBJECTIVES:  Adapt science classroom subjects and laboratory practices to virtual learning.  Achieve the right track by students throughout the course.  Get a suitable performance of students on basic skills of the matters.  Achieve an adequate development of other skills such as ICT (Information and Communication Technologies), self-learning, cooperation between groups, written communication, clarity of exposition, etc.

3. Sustituir por Título de Presentación (Pasos: Ver/Patrón/Patrón de Diapositivas) Portada Universidad de Almería SUBJECTS:  Fungi and Human Health.  Diseases of Trees and Shrubs.  Agricultural Nematology.  Weed Science.

4. Sustituir por Título de Presentación (Pasos: Ver/Patrón/Patrón de Diapositivas) Portada Universidad de Almería THEORY CLASSES:  Students receive the list of topics and contents in PDF and HTML format.  HTML files contain links to other websites and original pictures.  Theory knowledge is assessed through on-line exams, from a databank of questions, which were selected randomly.

5. Sustituir por Título de Presentación (Pasos: Ver/Patrón/Patrón de Diapositivas) Portada Universidad de Almería PRACTICE CLASSES:  Blended learning courses: practicals are done in UAL laboratories.  Virtual courses: There is a gallery with macro and microphotographs, together with a text that shows the main characteristics to be considered for identification through on-line keys.  The final grade is the arithmetic mean of all practical classes.

6. Sustituir por Título de Presentación (Pasos: Ver/Patrón/Patrón de Diapositivas) Portada Universidad de Almería INDIVIDUAL OR GROUP WORK:  It consists of generating a paper (DOC, RTF, PDF or similar) on a topic chosen from a list.  The paper must be accompanied by a presentation with slides (PPT, PDF or similar).

7. Sustituir por Título de Presentación (Pasos: Ver/Patrón/Patrón de Diapositivas) Portada Universidad de Almería INDIVIDUAL OR GROUP WORK:  In Weed Science, an alternative to paper is the digital herbarium.  It is equivalent to a traditional herbarium, but students, instead of handling real plants, must use digital photography and new technologies.  The digital herbarium can be adapted to other subjects related to Botany and Mycology.  When evaluating, teachers will consider not only the content of papers or herbaria, but also their presentation and originality.

8. Sustituir por Título de Presentación (Pasos: Ver/Patrón/Patrón de Diapositivas) Portada Universidad de Almería MARKS / GRADES:  The final mark will take into account theory exams, practicals and papers (or herbaria) equally.  One of the main problems observed in some papers is the "copy and paste" from various sources in the Internet.  Teachers will tray to make students understand that "copy and paste" is a reprehensible conduct in any university course.

9. Sustituir por Título de Presentación (Pasos: Ver/Patrón/Patrón de Diapositivas) Portada Universidad de Almería TUTORING SESSIONS:  Virtual tutorial is more used by students in e-learning subjects. In the case of blended learning, the “real” presence of teachers facilitates the exchange of information.  Along with the tutorials, we have used email and forums to help students to interchange ideas, ask for doubts, etc.  We think it is better than chats, because it is really impossible to establish a common schedule suitable for all students.

10. Sustituir por Título de Presentación (Pasos: Ver/Patrón/Patrón de Diapositivas) Portada Universidad de Almería FROM TRADITIONAL TO VIRTUAL CLASSROOM: AN EXAMPLE  Weed Science is a subject that has evolved from traditional to blended learning, and finally to 100% virtual (e-learning) in the C.A.V. (Andalusian Virtual Campus).  It is interesting to note how the marks of students have changed from 2002 to 2011.  The percentage of not taken exams has decreased, while new technologies are being applied.

11. Sustituir por Título de Presentación (Pasos: Ver/Patrón/Patrón de Diapositivas) Portada Universidad de Almería FROM TRADITIONAL TO VIRTUAL CLASROOM: AN EXAMPLE  Weed Science is a subject that has evolved from traditional to blended learning, and finally to 100% virtual (e-learning) in the C.A.V. (Andalusian Virtual Campus).  The percentage of students with high grades has increased with e-learning...  … While worse grades tend to decrease.

12. Sustituir por Título de Presentación (Pasos: Ver/Patrón/Patrón de Diapositivas) Portada Universidad de Almería CONCLUSIONS:  The virtual and b-learning scientific courses are still novel in the UAL (University of Almería). However, the good outcome motivates the registration of new students. This is extrapolated to a fully virtual campus, such as CAV (Andalusian Virtual Campus), especially when students note the interdisciplinary nature of subjects.  Virtual tutorial is more used by students in fully virtual subjects (CAV). In the case of b- learning, the contact with teachers facilitates interpersonal communication. However, the increasing uptake of ICT by students should mitigate this effect.  Virtual education in disciplines related to Botany (Mycology and Plant Pathology) seems to be successful for teaching and learning. In addition, it is suitably reinforced with the use of powerpoints, pdf, etc. to carry out group work and virtual herbaria.  The possible extension of these courses to other areas outside Andalusia seems appropriate, given their success, but we will need to consider the existent restrictions.

13. Sustituir por Título de Presentación (Pasos: Ver/Patrón/Patrón de Diapositivas) 13 Contraportada