The Virtual Debate as a Complementary Evaluation and Learning Method for Large Groups: An Experience with First Year Computer Studies Students

A chief problem encountered in higher education today is the high university dropout or failure rate of students coming from secondary education. Most of them drop out in the first year of their studies which is when they are affected by the greater impact of university teaching after leaving the secondary system. This work proposes to analyze the causes of this impact on one of the subjects which has high failure rates in Computer Engineering studies. Based on this analysis we propose to use a complementary method for learning and evaluating the subject, which is based on virtual debates held online which has led to a break with the negative tendencies attached to this subject. This methodology was put into practice during the 2006/2007 academic year, obtaining excellent results without detriment to the quality of the content addressed in the subject.