EXPERIENCES OF AN EDUCATIONAL INNOVATION PROJECT: ACADEMIC VISATEL AT UNIVERSITY OF JAEN

This paper presents the experiences of an educational innovation project which has been promoted by associate professors of the Telecommunication Engineering Department, University of Jaen (Spain). Also, an external institution called "Colegio Oficial de Ingenieros de Telecomunicacion" has participated. In 2008 it was created the academic VISATel (R) initiative (recently it has been replaced by "garanti@COIT Universidad") within the universities so the students of the Telecommunication Engineering Master Degree can know closely the development of an engineering project and its approval. The initiative consists of allowing the students to obtain a technical certificate of: a) a Project elaborated in a core course called Projects and b) a Master thesis, following a procedure similar to which already carry out the professionals with the signature and technical certificate of their projects; moreover, they may also carry the stamp of their Thesis. In this way the initiative aims to present the respective student with the professional activities carried out by a typical Telecommunications Engineer. The project has been a success as all the students who participated gained the knowledge of what procedures to follow in order to acquire the technical certificate of the professional projects of the Telecommunication Engineers and in doing so became more familiar with the platform used.