A SUDENT-CENTRED LEARNING APPROACH FOR MINING ENGINEERING STUDENTS AT CASTILLA-LA MANCHA UNIVERSITY

Blended Learning or the combination of online and face-to-face (f2f) teaching is an approach to teaching in which the experience of the learner is both basic and central. The aim is how the students are learning and how they engage in their own learning process. Teachers are no longer the only source of knowledge. Student-centred learning focuses on collaborative learning and on the students' outcomes rather than on teaching. At the Escuela Universitaria Politecnica of Almaden, Mining Engineering students are taught "Technical English" following a student-centred approach, combining both online and f2f teaching. The teacher is seen as a facilitator rather than a teacher and his role is to support students, to provide constant feedback and to guide them through their studies. Most teaching skills are as applicable online as f2f. Interactions among students can be through cooperative assignments, discussion groups in class, chatrooms, using email, videoconference, forums... Students are given more autonomy and control over their own way of learning and they assume a high level of responsibility being highly motivated. Blended-Learning combines the best aspects of both traditional and online teaching; it is more effective and students learn more than on either f2f or online teaching alone. Students play an active part in their own process of learning selecting different learning resources from different sources.