On special "hybrid" courses in mathematics [engineering education]

In this paper, the authors give a description and final results of a special Program in Mathematics, developed since 1996 and oriented to Engineering and Architecture freshmen at the Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria, Valparaiso, Chile. In this Program, structured in stages, they have organized special "hybrid" courses in mathematics which integrate traditional classroom teaching and "hands on" students\´ activities, developed "off-campus" in the context of distance learning. The main objectives of this program are to help to overcome the weaknesses showed by many engineering students, mainly freshmen, in teamwork, effective communication skills, problem solving strategies and improve the teaching-learning process in a course given in lecture format, by using computer resources and communication technologies. In this paper, they report not only the achievements of this program but also its failures and difficulties.