Modesto Pérez-Sánchez, Ruzan Galstyan-Sargsyan, Monica Belda Torrijos and P. Amparo López-Jiménez (Editors)
Universitat Politècnica de València, Valencia, Spain

Series: Education in a Competitive and Globalizing World
BISAC: EDU029030

With a new century, new methodologies and new resources, what do university engineering classrooms demand? People are faced with a society immersed in technology, and as a result, education requires new teaching methods integrated with technology. The objective is to build competencies to acquire and develop specific linguistic and digital competencies in which the student is the one who controls his or her process of knowledge acquisition, and the teacher is the guide.

In the virtual learning environment, there are virtual educational platforms (LMS, LCMS and VLE) with different teaching models (MLearning, BLearning, and ELearning). There are also endless creative and narrative possibilities that offer a unique format capable of converting conventional audio-visual content into an interactive and immersive 360º experience. With virtual reality, it is possible to go beyond solely analysing information; transmitting sensations, emotions and seeing in an immersive way what is explained in class is now a reality.

Education, specifically university education and training in engineering through second languages, has been mimicked in the evolution of society. Virtual reality allows the student to experience from a first person perspective the subject that is delivered through a second language. It is an important tool to tell what, and more importantly, how this action is experienced. With immersive technology we turn the class into a life experience. Virtual environments enhance a favourable environment to acquire knowledge and stimulate interactive learning.

This book presents eight chapters, which develop real case studies. These examples have been taught in different engineering areas of different universities of the world. Chapter One shows the influence of virtual reality on educational practice and didactics on the areas of pedagogy and psychology that was applied in hydraulic areas. Chapter Two describes an innovative teaching process based on problem-based learning techniques (PBL) to be integrated in a photovoltaic systems course. Chapter Three describes a method to improve the skills of technicians in the plastic sector in tasks related to the planning of the manufacturing processes and the exploitation of advanced ICT tools. Chapter Four shows an experience to increase the student’s motivation, and provide them essential key competencies such as instrumental competence, autonomy and self-confidence.

The fifth chapter describes two different experiences carried out in mathematics subjects using ICT tools, showing the results via bachelor degrees. Chapter Six shows the advantages and disadvantages obtained from a flipped classroom experience in a university course. In Chapter Seven, the augmented reality will be introduced as a tool that facilitates learning, while discovering what kind of applications and educational materials can be made with this technology and how they can be used in the classroom to enhance and consolidate the linguistic skills of our students in the area of English. Finally, in the last chapter the integration of technologies in all areas of people’s lives is considered, showing the use of video as an example.