Educational pills: how they are valued by undergraduate students at the University of Leon.

Abstract

The main objective of the present paper is to assess the implementation of an innovative teaching methodology known as Learning Pills. This methodology has been applied to two subjects of the Bachelor of Labour Relations and Human Resources at the University of León. Thirty students participated in the project, the average age for this group being 20 years old. The students were asked to fill in an evaluation questionnaire on learning pills, developed on an ad-hoc basis. According to the results, 96% of students deemed the learning pills as “quite” or “very” helpful for understanding the subject contents, describing them as highly motivational and learning-facilitating. The remaining 4%, judged the learning pills to have contributed “little” to their understanding, their learning, and their motivation. When asked whether they considered learning pills to be a better methodology than the traditional one, 93% of students judged the pills to be so, whereas a 6% considered the traditional methodology a better option. Significant differences in understanding and learning contents were found based on the students’ gender. Women deemed learning pills to be an effective resource for learning in a higher level than men did. In summary, the study concludes that learning pills are a facilitator of both learning and student motivation thanks to the advantages they offer in condensing contents, their appealing format, and their suitability to be integrated into digital platforms, which allows students to easily access them when needed. As to potential improvements for this research, in the future this methodology should be implemented in further subjects and to more students.