Tool for the elaboration of the TFG in a statistical environment through Moodle ("book")

Abstract

The objective of the article is to present a teaching innovation work, carried out by a group of professors from the Department of Econometrics, Statistics and Applied Economics of the Faculty of Economics and Business of the UB (DOI: 10.1344/401.000002955), consisting of the production of a Moodle book to support those ADE students (Business Administration and Management) who face, at the end of their studies, the challenge of completing their TFG (Final Degree Project). It is specially designed for those who plan to perform a TFG in which statistical techniques will have a relevant role in the content of their study.

Indeed, the lack of knowledge manifested by many of these students about the process to follow when developing a research work of a certain entity, such as the TFG, and the anxiety that this situation generates, was decided upon. this teaching resource, accessible without cost from the Moodle platform with which the students are already familiar and which, in addition, has the added advantage of having a series of interesting auxiliary tools that can further enhance the usefulness of the material.

The book becomes a manual, which was intended to be concise and practical, to resolve the issue of the TFG from beginning to end: from the production of the key idea of the work (from the definition of the theme), through the generation / collection of data and its subsequent analysis, and by the essential extraction of conclusions, until the final stage of writing the report and public presentation of the work that also involves the making of a poster.

Parallel to the book, a series of questionnaires were prepared to measure: i) the students 'prior knowledge on the subject, ii) the knowledge acquired after the use of the material and iii) the students' assessment of the resource. However, it is still not possible to evaluate to what extent the tool has been useful to those for whom it was created: the teaching period 2017-2018 is the first academic year in which the material is made available to students. At the end of the course it will be possible to carry out a first analysis of the data provided by these questionnaires.