The guidelines of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) imply the rethinking of many of the current evaluation systems, since the new pedagogical models now focus on the learning acquired through the students' personal work and on the establishment of the ideal conditions for them to achieve the learning outcomes of the proposed educational objectives. In this context, it has been a standard practice in the last years for social science undegradutate programmes to incorporate at least one major assessment exercise in the final (fourth) year of studies in the form of a project. This Final Year Project introduces a new problem-solving situation in undergraduate programmes and students must use their initiative to identify the research problems, decide on the information they need and how to obtain it, use the collected information to solve the research problems and present the results in an adequate way. This article presents an efficient and objective guide for the assessment process of the Final Year Project (FYP) in social sciences which can easily be customised for different social sciences curricula. More analytically, the guide which has been developed to help higher education institutions create their own FYP assessment systems starts with the definition of the final year project and the description of the structure that has to be followed for its realisation, continues with the analysis of its competences and their assessment, and ends with a proposal for implementation of the assessment procedure and the role of the evaluation agents.

Most young people spend time online every day in order to access social networks, where not only do they consume, but also produce content. The posting of content ends up reflecting a personal story in which young people recognize themselves. This posting practice requires competences that can be developed in digital literacy-related educational activities. Our research is aimed at understanding the posting habits of young people with the goal of integrating these practices in formal educational contexts. For this purpose, we have qualitatively analyzed the interviews of 21 young people. The results show different posting habits, as well as the motivating factors, perceptions and types of content posted by young people on social networks. An interpretative analysis of the results shows the possibilities of working on the storytelling experiences of young people on social networks from the perspective of the Personal Digital Storytelling educational methodology.

Background: This paper analyses the development of research competencies in higher education students, particularly with regard to the undergraduate Final-Year Project (FYP). The FYP is understood as an assignment that requires the integration of learning outcomes and demonstration of competencies for the successful completion of the degree. Purpose: Given the key role played by academic supervisors in the FYP, the main objective of this study was to ascertain their perceptions of the way students apply research competencies to their FYP. Sample: Interviews were carried out with a sample comprising 12 academic supervisors at the University of Barcelona (Spain), with at least two years of experience supervising FYPs in the Education Degree programme. Design and method: A qualitative, exploratory and interpretative methodology was employed, using semi-structured interviews, which were guided by a validated script. Once data were transcribed, themes were explored through hermeneutical content analysis. Results: The analysis allowed exploration of themes related to the supervisors’ perceptions of: the academic supervisor roles (personal and academic guidance; topic choice; definition, contextualisation and setting research; knowledge integration facilitation), student profiles (autonomy, awareness of competencies), the concept and process of the FYP and a number of specific research competencies (bibliographic research, information recovery and analysis techniques, methodological process organisation and ethical treatment of information). The analysis suggested that supervisors understand the research competencies within a broad frame of their teaching, and even within their personal roles, which range from motivating, raising awareness of what has been learnt during the degree course, explaining specific concepts or processes, right through to the academic supervisors’ own learning process. Conclusions: The study offers insights into the academic supervisors’ perceptions of the FYP and its relationship with the research competencies. It was evident, for example, that the supervisors’ views of the methodological aspect reached far beyond the application of a technique, as they attached importance to the coherence between different elements of the project. It is hoped that the research can help inform practical guidance, with the aim of supporting the development of the competencies.

El estudio de la aplicación de la inteligencia artificial (IA) en la escritura científico-académica es importante para favorecer la eficiencia en la generación de contenido académico. Además, es necesario investigar cómo la IA puede ayudar a mejorar la claridad y precisión de la comunicación científica. En este sentido, se ha llevado a cabo una revisión sistemática de la literatura (scoping review) que ha tratado el uso de la IA, específicamente ChatGPT, en relación con la escritura académica. Esto a fin de identificar los enfoques temáticos y los diseños de indagación aplicados en los trabajos publicados sobre este tema y, así, orientar futuros proyectos en esta línea de investigación. Para llevar a cabo este estudio, se procedió con la localización de artículos en Web of Science y Scopus. Los principales resultados del trabajo revelan el interés por la escritura académica y la IA en relación con sus posibles aplicaciones, herramientas específicas y la detección de plagio, así como su uso ético y responsable. Asimismo, se ha constatado una utilización de variedad de métodos de investigación. La discusión final se centra en cómo la integración de la IA en la escritura científico-académica plantea tanto oportunidades como desafíos en términos de ética, calidad y autonomía intelectual.

This article presents a study with a twofold research aim: (a) to ascertain university students’ perceptions on two combined assessment tools (e-portfolios and formative rubrics) and (b) to identify if among students there were differing perceptions on the use of e-portfolios, and what factors favored acceptance of these. The data gathering method was a questionnaire administered to 247 students on the Education Degree at the University of Barcelona. Regarding our first aim, it was confirmed that although the portfolio and rubrics were used in combination, students viewed each of them independently. Regarding the second aim, we identified four groups and a range of factors that may explain the varying perceptions of the portfolios and rubrics. Favorable factors were, in first place, greater teacher experience in using the digital portfolios; second, continuous technical support for their use; third, their having greater weight in assessment; and fourth, smaller class sizes.

This paper presents the fundamental characteristics of the Final Year Project (FYP), its associated competences and some evaluation standards that derived from a research conducted by the regional government of Catalonia and the Catalan University Quality Assurance Agency. More analytically, the paper begins with the definition of the Final Year Project in social sciences, continues with the identification and analysis of its associated competences and the basic phases for its realization and finishes with the presentation of some fundamental evaluation standards. Our final proposal is considered as objective and effective not only for the realization of the FYP by the students, but also for its evaluation by the instructors, since it can easily be customized for different social sciences curricula