INTRODUCTION TO INFORMATICS FOR FUTURE

DOCUMENTALISTS IN THE EUROPEAN HIGHER

EDUCATION AREA

M. Gestal, D. Rivero, J. R. Rabu˜nal, J. Dorado and A. Pazos

Information and Communication Technologies Department, University of A Coru˜na, A Coru˜na, Spain

Keywords:

Applied Informatics, European Higher Education Area.

Abstract:

In recent years, there has been an expansion in the use of IT tools. However, using these tools efﬁciently

has been detected by the teachers as one of the main weaknesses of the students of the Humanities and Doc-

umentation Degrees at the University of A Coru˜na. Taking advantage of the introduction of the European

Higher Education Area, the need to improve these weaknesses providing the student with the basics of the

most common computer applications is considered. This article describes the ”Applied Informatics” subject

that is currently taking place at the University of A Coru˜na, as part of the Documentation and Information

Degree.

1 INTRODUCTION

One of the most recurrent complaints from the teach-

ers which give classes at the Faculty of Humanities

from the University of A Coru˜na is related to the lim-

ited knowledge that students have about the advan-

tages they can obtain from a proper use of the func-

tionalities that IT resources provide.

Even though most students have their own com-

puter, its use is mainly restricted to searching in-

formation on internet [limitedly] and using it as a

mere typewriter to create presentations for any type

of work.

Aspects as simple as making document (indexes,

references, etc.) generation, repetitive calculations

in spreadsheets, etc, automatic are systematically

wasted by the students, mostly due to their ignorance.

Under this premise, we propose – taking ad-

vantage of the introduction of the new syllabus es-

tablished by the European Higher Education Area

(CRUE, 2003) – a subject in which those tools that al-

low maximizing the productivity in his/her daily work

are shown, starting almost from scratch.

2 GLOBAL DESCRIPTION AND

OBJECTIVES OF THE

SUBJECT

Applied Informatics is part of the syllabus of the ﬁrst

semester of the ﬁrst year, both in the Documentation

and Information Degree(UDC, 2010b) and the Hu-

manities Degree (UDC, 2010a). This subject has 6

ECTS credits, divided into 4 theoretical credits and 2

practical credits.

As mentioned before, the objective of the subject

is to show the students the beneﬁts of using different

IT tools within their reach and the way these tools

should be used.

Thus, the subject will follow a practical approach,

since the main goal is to not only know what can be

done, but also know how it can be done. The main

purposes of this subject can be summarized as fol-

lows:

• Become familiar with computers, their functions,

basic operation and components.

• Use the most common IT applications: ofﬁce soft-

ware programs (word processors, spreadsheets,

...), internet, etc.

• Have the possibility to use the main data manage-

ment IT tools.

301

Gestal M., Rivero D., R. Rabuñal J., Dorado J. and Pazos A..

INTRODUCTION TO INFORMATICS FOR FUTURE DOCUMENTALISTS IN THE EUROPEAN HIGHER EDUCATION AREA.

DOI: 10.5220/0003894503010304

In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Computer Supported Education (CSEDU-2012), pages 301-304

ISBN: 978-989-8565-06-8

 2012 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)

• Produce and reproduce documents in any media

or format for diffusion.

• Have the capacity of communicating using the re-

sources offered by new technologies.

Within the competences deﬁned in the syllabus

approved by the University of A Corua for the de-

gree, the following ones can be outlined as the most

directly related to the Applied Informatics subject:

• Speciﬁc Competences

– Knowledge of techniques and work methods

– Innovation in presentation and diffusion of cul-

ture

• Transverse Competences

– Learn to learn

– Solve problems effectively

– Apply critical, logical and creative thinking

– Work autonomously with initiative

– Capacity for proposing improvements and in-

novations

– Creativity and originality in thinking and prac-

tice

• Nuclear Competences

– Use basic information and communication

technology (ICT) tools which are necessary for

the exercise of the profession

– Critically asses the available knowledge, tech-

nology and information when dealing with and

solving problems

– Assess the importance of research, innovation

and technological developmentin the socioeco-

nomic and cultural progress of the society

More speciﬁcally, the subject?s competences are

the following:

• Know how to manage the ﬁle system and how to

organize information in a personal computer

• Know how to create complex text documents with

sections, styles, ﬁgures, tables and crossed refer-

ences

• Know howto use a bibliographicalreferenceman-

ager

• Know how to manage information in a spread-

sheet

• Know how to create multimedia presentations

• Know how to create multimedia content of differ-

ent types: images, graphics, sound, video, etc

3 TEACHING METHODOLOGY

The subject is based on three elements: theoretical

classes, guided practical classes, and practical exer-

cises. During the theoretical classes, the fundamental

concepts of the subject are introduced so as to allow

the student to study the proposed matter in depth. At

this point, the teaching staff plays an essential role,

but students are also encouraged to participate ac-

tively and this participationwill be taken into account.

Students receive the teaching material and a se-

lection of bibliographical references, enabling them

to prepare the classes in advance or to focus on a spe-

ciﬁc aspect.

The guided practical classes are dedicated partly

to the application of the exposed theoretical concepts

to a practical case. During these classes, students play

a more relevant role; the professor merely presents

the problem, makes a brief exposition about the way

it should be resolved and provides an individualized

(or generalized, if relevant) support in case of doubt.

Practical sessions take place individually (or in pairs).

The practical classes (or practical exercises) are

similar, but the teacher only presents the problem and

the students have to solve it without any kind of exter-

nal help. Later, the teacher will review these practical

exercises in order to obtain a ﬁnal qualiﬁcation.

4 PROGRAMME

The classes are within one semester, with two classes

each week (1.5 hours per class). The programme is

divided into 5 large sections of different nature. The

subjects are the following:

• SECTION 1: Informatics Basics

– Computer history

– Hardware

– Software

– Operative Systems

– Computer Networks

– Internet

• SECTION 2: Text Document Edition

– Text styles

– Content structuring

– Task automation: indexes, crossed references

– Reference managers

• SECTION 3: Information Management in

Spreadsheets

– Data

CSEDU2012-4thInternationalConferenceonComputerSupportedEducation

302

Table 1: Weighting criteria for the evaluation of the subject.

Aspect

Criteria Instrument

Weight

Attendance and Participation

– Active participation in

theoretical and practical

classes

– Participation and output

tutorials

Observation and teacher’s notes

10%

Concepts

– Command of theoretical

and operative notions

Final theoretical example

30%

Practical exercices

– Reasoning of solution

– Quality of work

– Clarity of exposition

Obervation and teacher’s notes

45%

Guided Practical Classes

Ouput and elaboration of

exercices during practical

classes

– Obervation and teacher’s

notes

– Presentation exercises and

practical classes

15%

– Graphics

– Formulas

• SECTION 4: Information Management in

Databases

– Modelling

– Queries

– Forms

• SECTION 5: Creation of Multimedia Content

– Digital images

– Computer Graphics

– Sound and video

– Presentations

The different sections will be explained in a class-

room in which computers are available for the stu-

dents. Thus, it is possible to alternate guided practi-

cal exercises with explanationsin relation to howeach

tool works.

5 EVALUATION

The evaluation process of this subject is continuous

and consists of several sections: assimilation of the-

oretical concepts, realization of guided practical ex-

ercises and execution of practical exercises (see Ta-

ble 1).

In order for students to pass this subject, the sum

of their qualiﬁcations in the different sections must be

at least 5, and the results of the theoretical exam and

each practical exercise must reach at least 40% of the

highest mark in order to check a minimum achieve-

ment of the subject.

The practical exercises will be retained for one

year. The students who have already passed these dur-

ing the previous year may repeat them but are not re-

quired to do so.

6 EXPERIENCE

The subject, introduced in the session 2009/2010, has

been welcomed by the students. They have learned

how to take advantage of tools they usually used.

With a reduced learning effort, they obtain much

more complete results and, what is welcomed with

great satisfaction by the students, in less time.

During this year, in which the subject has been in-

troduced,there has been greatattendance. In addition,

the results of the evaluation of the teachers have been

very positive. Thus, this shows that this subject has

had great acceptance.

Furthermore, as it shows Figure 1, ratios related

with Performance (pass credits / total enrolled cred-

its or matriculated) and Success (pass credits / real

presented credits) are higher in the proposed subject

than the mean values in the degree. In this case, we

would point the low difference between performance

and success rate for the subject. It reﬂects the very

low abandon rate for it, so we it could be seen as a

acceptation measure for the students.

INTRODUCTIONTOINFORMATICSFORFUTUREDOCUMENTALISTSINTHEEUROPEANHIGHER

EDUCATIONAREA

303

Figure 1: Performance and Success Rate for the ﬁrst year.

7 CONCLUSIONS

As mentioned in the previous section, there has been

a great degree of acceptance by the students.

However, it will be necessary to wait until it is

checked whether students start to apply the acquired

knowledge systematically to the presented subject or

others or, on the contrary, old techniques are still

used.

REFERENCES

CRUE (2003). Conferencia de rectores de las universi-

dades espa˜nolas [crue]. declaraci´on de la conferencia

de rectores de las universidades espaolas sobre el es-

pacio europeo de educaci´on superior. madrid: Con-

sejo de coordinaci´on universitaria, 2003; ministerio

de educacin, cultura y deporte [mecd]. la integraci´on

del sistema universitario espa˜nol en el espacio eu-

ropeo de educaci´on superior. documento marco. [dec-

laration of the conference of rectors of the spanish

universities on the european higher education area.

the integration of the spanish university system in

the european higher education area. framework doc-

ument]. Madrid: Ministerio de Educacin, Cultura y

Deportes, 2003. http://www.eees.es/pdf/Documento-

Marco 10 Febrero.pdf.

UDC (2010a). University of a corua. humanities degree.

available at: http://www.udc.es/ensino/detalleestudio?

codigo=710g01v01.

UDC (2010b). University of a corua. information and docu-

mentation degree. available at: http://www.udc.es/ en-

sino/detalleestudio? codigo=710g02v01.

CSEDU2012-4thInternationalConferenceonComputerSupportedEducation

304