Development of a technological course on audiovisuals in self-directed learning environment

In this paper, a description of activities that have been developed in a course of audiovisuals with high technological content is reported. An enhancement of the self-directed learning environment that the authors tested in similar subjects is now tested for the Sound and Image Engineering degree. A unidirectional class scheme, in which teacher dictates to students and there is a final evaluation that only considers the quantity of captured details, has proven not to be satisfactory for courses in which the amount of information is very large. Besides, since technical details are widespread available, students perceive classes as wasted time and their motivation is not satisfactory. Therefore, following the experience of the authors in other technical courses, the whole course has been designed as a mix of dynamic activities that exploit the benefits of self-directed learning and cover almost the entire course syllabus. Results from both teacher and students are presented comparatively, which show a high degree of correlation between academic assessment and student self-evaluation.