Teaching Biology through eLearning: an innovation Educative

Abstract

“ELearning” is a concept that has emerged successfully in education, understood as broadly of all forms of educational technology in learning and teaching. It is suited to distance learning and flexible learning, but it can also be used in conjunction with face-to-face teaching, known as blended learning.

This research considers eLearning with cooperative work. Its aim is to improve students’ achievement and to promote meaningful learning. It is sustained on Ausubel’s Meaningful Learning Theory, on Piaget’s concepts, and on Johnson and Johnson’s basic components of cooperative learning. 

The research is solved through the quantitative paradigm with some complementary elements of the qualitative approach, especially referring to achieved learning. Research methodology is a quasi-experiment that compares learning and academic achievement between an experimental and a control group. The subject-matter developed is a learning unit dealing with Genetic inheritance in courses delivered to undergraduate students. 

The research results declare that the teaching proposal is well received by the students. In addition, it allows to explore attitudinal and cognitive abilities that application of the proposal develops as well as to show the way towards innovative teaching methodologies should address in the future.

Keywords: eLearning, technology, blended learning, distance learning, flexible learning, educational technology, paradigm, cooperative work, innovative teaching.