E-LEARNING IN CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL
DEVELOPMENT ACROSS THE GLOBE
An Experience in Water Engineering
J. Izquierdo, P. A. López, V. S. Fuertes
Centro Multidisciplinar de Modelación de Fluidos, Polytechnic University of Valencia, Cno. de Vera, s/n, Valencia, Spain
F. J. Izquierdo
Área de Sistemas de Información y Comunicaciones (ASIC), Polytechnic University of Valencia, Cno. de Vera, s/n
Valencia, Spain
Keywords: Distance learning, continuous professional development, water engineering.
Abstract: Based on our wide experience in continuous professional development (CPD) through traditional activities
and hands-on experience on several commonly used Learning Management Systems, we have integrated
both concepts and developed a simple, yet effective e-learning approach to help professionals in the water
field to fill the gap between their sometimes not updated background and the new features that characterize
the water field in the present days. We argue that this task can make use of the same approach that is
essential to the knowledge discovery process, to which the e-learning process boils down to. In this
contribution we present the work performed at the Polytechnic University of Valencia, within the
Multidisciplinary Team of Fluid Modelling, on web systems to support technology enhanced learning
specifically addressed to professionals in the Water field. Our approach hinges on the joint use of the online
as well as the offline characteristics of the e-learning process and puts to work together in a synergic way
both traditional and technology-based learning know-how. As a result, a number of distance courses have
been produced that are used for Engineering CPD across the globe, since many professionals worldwide,
mainly from Spanish speaking countries, have followed our courses. We present the evolution of our system
and the results obtained from testing and evaluating the prototype during the last three years. We have
identified issues significant to users in order to better manage the system and changes required to adapt our
system to organizational processes and context. Feedback received from trainees indicates both the validity
of our approach and the feasibility of implementing e-learning materials to contribute to CPD in the water
field in particular and in any field in general, since the methodology herein presented can be exported in a
straightforward manner.
1 INTRODUCTION
The final aim of Continuing Professional
Development (CPD) is to update the knowledge
required by professionals to improve their
performance, allowing them to find valid solutions
to the new problems they have to face every day.
Virtually without exception, all knowledge areas
have to undergo dramatic changes frequently
developed at vertiginous speed. The Water Field is
far from being an exception. In effect, the traditional
background of the Hydraulic Engineer of the last
century, driven by the universal and generalised
water policy exerted from the offer side, has been
oriented to Civil Engineering, neglecting and even
ignoring technical aspects that have proved to be
strongly demanded by the current labour market
(Cabrera et al. 1999). Emphasis is placed on keeping
on exploiting and taking advantage of the natural
resources of the Planet, but under the command that
development do not compromise the future, that is,
to be sustainable. The concept of sustainability of a
natural resource has triggered the updating of a
number of aspects closely related to the water field,
completely ignored a few decades ago. It is now ten
years since the task force of American Society of
383
Izquierdo J., A. López P., S. Fuertes V. and J. Izquierdo F. (2007).
E-LEARNING IN CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ACROSS THE GLOBE - An Experience in Water Engineering.
In Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies - Society, e-Business and e-Government /
e-Learning, pages 383-390
DOI: 10.5220/0001269803830390
Copyright
c
 SciTePress

civil Engineering (ASCE) regarding Environmental
Hydraulic towards de 21st century was issued.
According to the ASCE Task Force Committee on
Hydraulic Engineering Research Advocacy (ASCE,
1996)
 education and research have not been
articulated in a suitable way;
 researchers do not connect adequately with
social needs underlined by politicians;
 education programmes in Hydraulics are not
tailored to the real labour market needs;
 hydraulic engineers should develop wider and
more visionary thinking.
Nevertheless, it is a real fact that the level of
knowledge on water management from the demand
side (sustainable water management) is by far lower
than that of classical management (water
development). University (academia) has shown
strong inertia in the subject, due to its novelty and to
the lack of tradition, to accommodate rapidly to the
Society demand. In addition, it is frequently difficult
to find educational publications of quality. As a
result, most professionals in the water field have to
face the new perspective with a clear lack of suitable
training to cope with it.
On the other hand, the fact that technology
within the water industry is under continuous
development incorporating new tools every day, the
lack of training and education in this field, despite
the great job demand, and the future consolidation of
this trend with new crises due to lack of water
resources and/or loss of water quality, make it clear
that wide possibilities are open to applied research
tending to develop more efficient techniques of
management from the demand side. Logically,
research would be worthless without result
dissemination through CPD activities reaching the
professionals in charge of implementing them in
practice. Academy, in substantial debt within this
subject, has to undergo the process of courageously
assuming the guidelines given by the ASCE Task
Force in 1996.
These circumstances, under the author’s point of
view, give outstanding importance to subjects
closely related to efficient use of water from the
perspective of both R+D and the shear transmission
of knowledge, that is, CPD. Nevertheless, high
demand orientation, even though it shows necessary
to achieve a good response within the labour market,
does not guarantee success. It is of paramount
importance to perfectly balance fundamentals and
applications for the professionals to be able to assess
the different alternatives. This task is far from being
easy and demands a continuous dialog between
education sender and receiver.
Unfortunately, this dialog between water
professionals and university personnel is not
straightforward. A number of obvious reasons make
it difficult to create the right framework for the
necessary knowledge transmission.
On the other hand, it becomes more and more
clear that the use of telematic tools by online
learning communities, through the true involvement
of all the participants, allows the necessary share of
information through suitable net learning models.
These models, when adequately designed, may
constitute a suitable framework to fulfil the task of
CPD. Technological evolution has made the use of
virtual learning tools more and more of an option in
distance learning; these tools have become an
indispensable support for the achievement of
educational aims in learning institutions, namely
through the provision of means for the interaction
between participants.
This paper aims at describing the work
developed within the Multidisciplinary Team of
Fluid Modelling at the Polytechnic University of
Valencia, in the field of CPD by using distance
learning materials addressed to professionals in the
water field. Our activity in CPD, including the
participation in international forums and projects
(see Cabrera et al., 1998 and Cabrera et al., 1999), is
a fundamental feature of the Team. Based on this
experience through traditional activities (quoting just
a short sample of recent references, see Iglesias et
al., 1999; Fuertes et al., 2003; Izquierdo et al., 2004;
Díaz et al., 2004a; Fuertes et al., 2004; López et al.,
2005; Izquierdo et al., 2006a) and hands-on
experience on several commonly used Learning
Management Systems (see, among others, Izquierdo
et al., 1997; Izquierdo et al., 2003; Díaz et al.,
2004b; Izquierdo et al. 2006b), we have integrated
both concepts and developed a simple, yet effective
e-learning approach that has materialized in a set of
telematic courses with the aim of helping
professionals in the water field to fill the gap
between their sometimes not updated background
and the new features that, taking into account the
changes experienced within the water philosophy
and needs, characterize the water field in the present
days. We also describe the benefits and difficulties
that were found and add some reflections on
solutions for the improvement of this model. We
present the evolution of our system and the results
obtained from testing and evaluating the prototype,
during the last three years. We have identified issues
significant to users in order to better manage the
WEBIST 2007 - International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies
384

system and changes required to adapt our system to
organizational processes and context. Feedback
received from trainees indicates both the validity of
our approach and the feasibility of implementing e-
learning materials to contribute to CPD in the water
field in particular and in any field in general since
the methodology herein presented can be exported in
a straightforward manner. The structure of this paper
is as follows: first we describe the long and iterative
way of materials production; then, our model is
presented focussing on a number of dimensions that
characterize modern telematic tools and distance
learning; finally, we report both positive and
negative facts about the experience to conclude with
its really positive assessment.
2 MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT
The process leading through the production of each
unit is iterative: there are different feedbacks from
the first draft to the computer implementation. In a
compact way, the steps are the following:
 Content proposal made by the responsible of
the unit. According to his or her knowledge of
the subject, his or her expertise in the field and
other considerations (own points of view
involving a variable degree of difficulty) the
responsible delineates the basic scenario,
settings, aspects and one or more lines of work
from them. Also, other materials, such as
exercises, questions or even tests susceptible
of being directly used can be proposed at this
stage.
 Collection and understanding of the material by
the writer of the linear writing. The first
materialization of the work can be called
linear writing (screenplay in cinematographic
terms). It is the backbone of the unit. All the
contents to be developed in the unit appear in
the linear writing in its final order. Also their
characteristics, such as extension and other
worth mentioning details (like conflicting
points to be underscored) and also the way in
which they are going to be presented (like
would-be illustrations and specific ideas about
animations, video, etc.) are then described in
full. Guidelines to embody the linear writing
can be:
¾ Materials selection to fulfil the objectives.
¾ Material structuring.
¾ Thinking in interactivity and motivation.
Selection of graphics, pictures, audios,
videos, animations, interactive elements,
simulations, internet links, etc.
¾ Making sure that the units are self-
contained.
¾ Deciding which materials are essential and
which additional.
¾ Indication of what information and/or
crossed references should be available
from hyperlinks.
¾ Etc.
 First revision (feedback). The writer of the
linear writing agrees with the unit responsible
the corrections, amendments, modifications,
alternative approaches, etc. The importance of
their communication, which should be
maintained during the whole process, allows
the creation of a dynamic and accessible final
product. Note that both roles can be assumed
by the same physical person.
 Storyboard development. The linear writing
cannot directly be implemented in the
computer. Although the contents, the order in
which they will appear and the entire auxiliary
means to be used are already decided at this
stage, the attempt to directly type on the
keyboard or to develop blindly animations or
illustrations turns to be inefficient most of the
times. It comes from the fact that edition
cannot be improvised if the final aim is a
really interactive and attractive product. As a
consequence, in this fourth phase the
equivalent to a cinematographic storyboard is
developed. The storyboard consists of a
remake of the linear script in which contents
are divided into pages and screens. Now
several questions should be posed: which part
will be audio and which text?; how the
concepts will be introduced?; how animations,
videos, series of pictures will be presented?;
how equations or their parts will be
enhanced?; how superimpositions will be
developed?; etc. For example, audios should
be used to link concepts and not to introduce
complex concepts; the text in one screen
should be short, concise and avoiding abuse of
descriptive materials; the use of moving
diagrams could help the trainee understanding,
perhaps with the help of a suitable audio; a
plethora of ideas should be added here, only
limited by the storyboard writer’s own
imagination.
 Computer implementation. It is probably the
most mechanistic but, in a certain sense, the
most exciting and rewarding phase of the
E-LEARNING IN CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ACROSS THE GLOBE - An Experience in Water
Engineering
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process, since the outcome of the previous
phases makes its appearance at the end. It is
‘the most mechanistic’ because starting from
the storyboard it seems to reduce to the most
immediate action of copy and paste.
Nevertheless, it is a creative ‘copy and paste’,
since it does not boil down to directly translate
facts to series of screens through the used
author language. On the contrary, this phase
involves user interaction design, picture and
video recording, graphics and charts design,
animation rendering, etc. Now, it becomes
clear that words like ‘copy and paste’ and
‘mechanistic’ are not at all suitable.
 Full revision of the final product. The complete
unit is evaluated by persons both related and
not related to the work, in order to check if the
proposed objectives have been fulfilled. Inner
analysts check the formal outcome and outer
appraisers evaluate the most important aspect:
if it eventually meets the didactic and
educational functionality to which it was
intended to.
3 THE MODEL
Even though interactive learning can be observed
from the static (personal, mono-user) point of view,
such as the one provided by an interactive book with
self-links or the well-known linked documents in pdf
format, the true potential of e-learning resides
currently in the communication capacity offered by
several new technologies and, specially, by the
Internet. A pioneering author in the field of e-
learning, Badrul H. Khan, editor of several
monographic works (Khan, 1997, 2001), has
proposed a model to identify different levels of
discourse regarding training through the Internet. In
this paragraph we present our implementation
regarding seven of the dimensions considered by
Khan. Only ethical considerations have been left out
of this work.
3.1 Pedagogy
From a pedagogical point of view, one can consider
the so-called Social-Constructivism, which
emphasizes the importance of culture and context in
understanding what occurs in society, and constructs
knowledge based on this understanding (Derry,
1999; McMahon, 1997). This perspective is closely
associated with many contemporary theories, most
notably the developmental theories of Vygotsky and
Bruner, and Bandura's social cognitive theory
(Shunk, 2000). Social Constructivism Education
exhibits a philosophy based in four basic pillars. The
Constructivist one, according to which the learning
capacity of an individual becomes more efficient by
interacting with the neighbourhood (Piaget, 1977);
the Constructionist one, which spans the previous
idea by considering that, when building something,
learning is reinforced by the fact of showing the
others the object that is built (Papert and Harel,
1991); the Social Constructivist one complements
the others with the idea of devising group learning
mechanisms to show things to other groups (Rogoff,
1993). And, finally, it is the concept of ‘being
connected’, which reflects the capacity of being in
permanent contact with the neighbourhood, what
transcends the subjective vision of concepts that is
typical of separated (unconnected) learning
(Moodle, 2006, Connected and Separate section). As
explained below, all those four pillars have been
used to erect our structure.
3.2 Platforms
Based on these pedagogical ideas, a number of on-
line platforms have been created during the last
years. Some of them are of commercial use (like
WebCT, but others are open-source (like SAKAI,
and MOODLE).
Those platforms are mainly oriented to be used
through the Internet by means of web browsers,
what provides the trainees with full access from any
computer with Internet connexion, as long as they
have an access account to the course.
On the other hand, the hardware requirements are
easily satisfied even by the most affordable
configurations.
3.3 Management
From the computer implementation point of view,
the requirements for the web administrator are not
too demanding, since those platforms are distributed
within packages that are easy to install and not
requiring a too complex backend. As an example,
MOODLE, the platform used in the application
herein described, needs a LAMP (Linux, Apache,
MySQL and PHP) environment, which turns to be of
very easy administration.
From the point of view of the
trainer/administrator these platforms allow very
versatile configurations due to the fact that a wide
variety of modules can be easily added, what
constitutes the true attractiveness of on-line courses.
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Also, security systems, access logins and passwords,
student monitoring, announcements, tutoring,
communications, guides for the student, etc., are
easily managed.
3.4 Tools
Not only content presentation in the traditional
manner by means of lesson-like modules are
possible, but also so-called SCORM (Sharable
Content Object Reference Model) (Redbird Software
Corp., 2006, Content Packages and Resources
section) modules that, besides being interchangeable
with other courses, allow the use of diverse
materials, such as videos, flash presentations, links
to other web sites, etc. Using the same
characteristics of content presentation it is possible
to create Glossaries of terms that, suitably linked
from the presented materials, will be of great help
for the student to get concepts. These objects can be
configured as collaborative, in the sense that both
students and trainers are able to enlarge each term in
the Glossary with their own ideas and/or examples.
Going further into the field of collaboration, an
electronic learning platform allows the inclusion of
Wiki modules and the building of Blogs, with the
intention of luring students to participate in its
construction, by following certain guidelines or
basic rules established by the trainer with the aim
that the own trainee be able to complete or enlarge
the subject under study.
3.5 Tutoring
Well within this interactivity we would like to
enhance that, without doubt, communication
between trainer and trainee is of paramount
importance. We are speaking about tutoring. This
communication can be carried out by means of
Forums and Chats, which are well known amongst
internet users and can be created within these
platforms. Also Queries, in the sense of fast opinion
surveys launched by the trainer to get specific pieces
of information from the student that would allow
him or her to modify the progress of training or
other strategies, can be considered.
3.6 Evaluation
Learning involves, of course, measurement of the
training level reached by the trainee. To accomplish
this task a wide variety of modules are at trainer’s
disposal: self-evaluation modules, such as
questionnaires with multi-choice answer and
automatic self-assessment on completion, or the so-
called Hot Potatoes (Half-Baked software Inc., 2006,
What is Hot Patatoes? section), sometimes more
attractive for some students, since they allows a
huge variety of exercises, such as crosswords,
associations, multiple selection, short answers,
filling of gaps, etc. All these exercises will be
evaluated at the end of the exercise. As a result, the
trainer is able to provide the student with a set of
evidential proofs allowing the later to build an idea
on his or her learning level. The final assessment,
from the trainer point of view, will be performed
from Task modules, which are short and theoretical
works, and Workshops, which are longer projects
that will be eventually sent to the trainer as an
independent document in any of the customary
electronic formats.
The list of all the abovementioned resources,
which far from constitutes an exhaustive one, allows
a wide variety of combinations, including the
nesting of one into another. For example, one unit
may end with a self-assessment exercise forcing the
student to pass it before getting into the next.
3.7 The Interface
From the student/client point of view, the
visualization of an on-line course must be attractive,
simple, intuitive and useful. As a consequence,
modification of the general presentation of the
different modules should be allowed both for the
teacher and the student. The administrator will place
the blocks in the main page where he or she
considers necessary, and will give different
permissions to the users (students and teachers) for
their re-distribution, elimination (in the case they are
not necessary) and/or inclusion of new ones (if they
are considered as interesting). The trainer will be in
charge of maintaining the order within his or her
course, but the student will be allowed to customize
the general appearance of the interface so that he or
she feels more comfortable.
3.8 Final Considerations
All in all, electronic learning exhibits great
potentiality since, despite there is no teacher present
during the process, it allows, as has been explained
before, a wide variety of both instant and
asynchronous communication possibilities, of
content presentation in different formats, text,
hypertext, links to other own or alien sources,
videos, flash presentations, static or animated
graphics, etc. In addition, it can be done in a
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Engineering
387

hierarchical and perfectly ordered way due to the
capacity of organization into directories, labelling of
contents and organized presentation of configurable
blocks that endow these interfaces with a powerful
potentiality as learning tools. On the other hand, it
provides all the involved actors with suitable
communication devices. Students are able to share
information at ease both with the tutor and other
colleagues, and trainers are able to track much better
students’ progress. These characteristics help to
meet the requirements urged by modern telematic
trends and, above all, make distance learning
effective.
4 FEEDBACK AND RESULTS
Distance learning in Spanish in the World of
Hydraulic and Environmental Engineering has been
herein considered as a pilot experience. To the
knowledge of the authors, there are no previous
experiences in distance learning in Spanish for this
pool of professionals, and the activities developed
within the CMMF must be considered pioneering. In
this section we describe our team personal
experience in the subject. It is made up of different
pros and cons, but it should be eventually assessed
as very fruitful.
Development of so a specific type of materials
with the aim of rendering them into telematic
training units is really time consuming and not
straightforward at all. As a rough estimate, a course
with available written documentation (see linear
writing in paragraph 2), which has been devised as a
fifty hour course for a student, takes a whole month
full time work of preparation by an expert university
lecturer prior to be issued through the telematic tool
we use. Preparing self-contained didactic units with
suitable length, devising all the multimedia needs,
such as images, animated videos, graphics, links to
other related pages, glossaries linked to selected
words, references in the Internet, foldable examples,
tests and interactive workshops, etc. (see more
details in paragraph 2), takes most of the time.
Nevertheless, during the two academic courses in
which the activity has been developed, the impact,
taking into account the specificity of the subject, can
be assessed as more than acceptable.
Fifty five people have taken the courses, forty
one out of them have been Spaniards, eight from
Mexico, two from Colombia, four from the
Dominican Republic, two from Peru and one from
Chile.
Most of the students were professionals working
in companies, either public or private, devoted to
water management. Nevertheless, all of them had
close relationship with water supply operation, either
with technical management, thus showing especial
interest in the course about pumping stations and the
one about hydraulic transients, or with building
installations and more basic tasks within the water
supply activity, thus exhibiting higher interest for
our course related to foundations and basics of
Hydraulic Engineering applied to fluid transport.
On the other hand, a specific agreement has been
signed with the Universidad Michoacana (Mexico),
for the participation of university lecturers from this
institution with original education as Civil
Engineers, whose background on hydraulic
machinery and small hydraulic systems was
considered as incomplete.
The response and level of participation of the
registered students must be evaluated as very
positive, according to the feedback received both by
their communications and by the automatic control
of connexions exerted by the system. For one thing,
the students had to perform on-line evaluations with
regard to the contents of the specific subject they
were working on. We have to say at this point that,
as expected, almost all the evaluations have been
excellent. For another thing, the quality of the
written materials, which were sent electronically,
regarding the different workshops, reached, in most
instances, really high levels. Most of these
communications were directly related with those
workshops, which posed questions and problems
requiring some time to be solved and aimed at the
student’s acquaintance with the main objectives and
skills, thus requiring more time and attention from
the student. Over 65 per cent of the workshops have
been performed perfectly, thus deserving the highest
mark. Those students that were not given a top-mark
evaluation for the workshops, -25 per cent-, were
able, with only little iteration, to get positive
assessment. Only 10 per cent of the registered
students gave in.
On the other hand, the relationships established
through this tool, taking into account the specificity
of the subject, have triggered a number of
discussions going further and rising aspects different
than the concrete contents under study, but focussing
on the professional tasks performed by certain
students. Since we, the trainers in charge of these
distance courses, are specialists in pumping stations
and hydraulic engineering, this platform has
provided our students with the possibility of rising
questions (especially technical ones) about, for
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example, specific characteristics regarding water
supply systems or about the determination of the
characteristics, selection of pumps and regulation of
pumping stations. These aspects require high
standard skills in the subject and, as a consequence,
are not included in more basic courses. Anyway, this
feedback, under our point of view, should qualify as
a high quality one since it is fruitful for trainees and
for trainers too. In effect, some of the aspects raised
by the students have been incorporated to the next
edition of one course or are in process of being
incorporated.
Tutoring has been one of the most interesting
aspects in our experience. Not only personal
tutoring, which has been the most abundant and
fruitful, but also discussion in the specific forum
implemented in the tool has become a really
enriching experience. Students have shared fluently
specific problems taken from their respective
companies. In some cases, questions raised were
common to many of them. But, in a good number of
instances (bigger than expected), the personal
experiences disclosed in the forum motivated
interesting exchanges of information, which were
considered by other students, thus greatly
revalorising the expected objectives. Under our point
of view, this enhances the suitability of the tool.
Nevertheless, it has to be said that the main
drawback has consisted in the bigger effort that both
trainer and administrator have been forced to do,
since this kind of activity is really very demanding
one.
As said before, the tool we are describing here
allows the realisation of on-line surveys. Although
technically the resource has worked perfectly, it is
necessary to add that their evaluation may be
considered not completely reliable, since most
students were not familiarized at all with distance
learning, what made some of the surveys really
heterogeneous. It has to be pointed out here that the
best evaluated aspects were the attention given by
the trainer (tutoring and forums), the specific
contents of the different themes and their
applicability for the students’ working field. As a
consequence, our assessment, which can be given in
the own terms used by most students, is that the
‘course has been very useful’. Eventually, it should
be said that it has been really rewarding for the full
team of people who have worked to prepare these
kinds of distance learning resources.
We are currently developing and intend to
develop new telematic courses in the water field that
will be able to coexist with the three courses already
developed. In fact, registration is open at the
moment of typing this paper and keeps on growing
on a daily basis.
The decision about the subjects to be considered
in the new interactive courses is determined by two
really important aspects. On one hand, the
responsible of the course contents must be an expert
in the subject: it is absolutely necessary that
materials are interesting and well chosen; thus,
performing a good tracking of them seems to reveal
an urgent necessity. But, on the other hand, we
should think which is the society demand regarding
distance learning within our fields of interest. The
objective is to aim with maximum accuracy at the
biggest work stock markets. In this regards it seem
plausible that next trends will aim, amongst others,
at plumbing installations of different fluids, where
the new legislation implies wide changes from the
Engineering and Architecture points of view and
European and international directives are propelling
a series of movements to save water by making a
more rational use of it within the consumers
collectives. Future initiatives will certainly point in
those directions.
5 CONCLUSIONS
Distance learning in Spanish in the World of
Hydraulic and Environmental Engineering has been
herein considered as a Continuous Professional
Development pilot experience. To the knowledge of
the authors, no telematic tools of this nature have
been developed in Spanish for this pool of
professionals so far. Our experiences both in
traditional courses and in multimedia materials
development have been put to work together in order
to produce a series of distance learning courses
aimed at providing professionals in the water field
with updated information that could help them to
bridge the gap between their education at the origin
and the new features that current environmental
trends stubbornly seem to point at. We claim that the
developed materials together with the platform used
to implement them meet the requirements urged by
modern telematic theories since it provides all the
involved actors with suitable devices to perform
their own tasks. Students are able to share
information at ease both with the tutor and other
colleagues, and trainers are able to track much better
students’ progress. The courses have been followed
by students throughout the world, mainly from Spain
and Latin America and the results can be definitely
considered very satisfactory.
E-LEARNING IN CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ACROSS THE GLOBE - An Experience in Water
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work has been performed under the support of
the projects Investigación Interdisciplinar nº 5706
(UPV) and DPI2004-04430 of the Dirección General
de Investigación del Ministerio de Educación y
Ciencia (Spain) and FEDER funds.
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Cabrera, E., Izquierdo, J., van der Beken, A., 1998. On the
convenience of creating a European Network of CPD
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