Personal Learning Environments as the Basis of a New Course for Master's Programmes

Abstract

The integration of the concept of personal learning environment (PLE) into a master's curriculum can enhance the learning process and outcomes, student's motivation and competencies acquisition. The digital competence, not yet typically incorporated into the curricula in Spain and key competence for lifelong learning as for the EU Recommendation 2006/962/EC, can be especially upgraded. This paper presents the structure of the new course as implemented in the Master's Programme in Energy Efficiency in Building, Industrial and Transportation Engineering at Universidad Politecnica de Madrid (MUEE-UPM) in the academic year 2017-2018. As part of this master, this 15 ECTS course is offered as elective, and was also conceived to train students to face the preparation of the master's thesis, for who the tools, information sources and connections that a properly designed PLE entails can be highly beneficial. This paper aims to contribute to the growing, but yet limited, literature on the PLEs' implementation in higher education. The replicable structure of the course is shown (validated for 15 ECTS and adaptable to other volumes of learning), designed to be offered as blended learning. The lectures and tutorials combine the flipped classroom method with the follow-up of massive open online courses (MOOCs) on transversal competencies (e.g. communication, leadership) and specific skills on energy efficiency (e.g. energy performance certificates, sustainable energy) due to the character of the ongoing pilot experience in the framework of the MUEE-UPM.