USING THE PROGRAMME EXCEL IN THE CONCEPTION OF QUESTIONNAIRES AND DATA ANALYSIS.

A CASE STUDY IN E-LEARNING FOR LIFELONG LEARNING TEACHERS

Martinho, C.* ** ab and Vaz-Fernandes, P.* ***
INTRODUCTION
Universidade Aberta (Uab) is an institution of higher education that has made a strong effort for sustainable development in education, in the sense that has democratized the access to knowledge by diversifying the supply of pedagogical materials and placing them within reach of everyone, everywhere and anytime, which is reflected in the impact in terms of Human Capital. This contribution has been strengthened by the diversity of teaching on short courses, continuous education for professionals, integrated into Lifelong Learning (LLL). This type of offer is particularly important to those whose personal and professional occupations are incompatible with de system of classroom teaching. This paper presents a case-study in both the areas of LLL and ongoing teacher training through e-learning. The training session Introduction to Questionnaire and Treatment in Excel, which is the basis of this study, is aimed at primary and secondary school /teachers and was organized by Uab Science and Technology Department (DCeT) The offer of distance training sessions by a state University is undoubtedly a guaranty of sustainability for the development of ongoing learning for all. The distance learning, in particular UAbs Pedagogical Model (Pereira et al., 2007) offers: students centered learning, flexibility, interaction and digital inclusion (Pereira et al., 2009).

MAIN EVIDENCE
Out of the 30 trainees who took part in this training session, 90% were female and 10% male with ages ranging from 26 to 61 years old (chart 1), 50% of the enrolled trainees had ages ranging between 46 and 56 years old. With regard to academic qualifications in this group of teachers, trainees, 90% had a degree, 7% a Masters degree and 3% a PHD (chart 2 A). Their training areas were very diverse, but the greatest number was of Maths teachers.

Chart 2. Trainees characterization regarding qualifications and teaching subjects

Courses General Organization and its Institutional Setting

This training session was set up in its totality as e-learning and organized over four weeks, combining a total number of 26 hours of individual and group work. It was divided in five modules, numbered from 0 to 4. In the first week the first two modules took place
Table1. Chronology, identification and competences of the session Introduction to Questionnaire and Treatment in Excel

The trainees were from various regions of Portugal. Mostly the group consisted of women, which is expected, since this is a training for teachers (in Portugal the majority of teachers are female). Most trainees were older than 46 years, showing evidence of being older teachers to seek further training in ICT.

Motivation for attending the course by age

25% 20%

15%
10%

Chart 1. Age characterization of the trainees

5% 0% 21-30 30-35 36-41 42-47 48-53 54-59

Flexibility

to obtain credits in order to progress in career

Subject

ASSESSMENT AND CLASSIFICATION The assessment was based on two criteria virtual classroom and discussion contributions, as well as the final assignment. he assessment of the discussion contributions were based on: meaning/quality of the contributions; time/opportunity; frequency of the contributions; cooperation with colleagues. The final assignment consisted in a creation of a small database in Excel and its statistical/graphic treatment using the functions mentioned during the training. Classification was decided taking into account contribution in the discussions, including collaborative activities: 30% and Individual final assignment: 70%. Assessment was conducted according to the UAb pedagogical model which envisaged the completion of an individual final assignment. A qualitative and quantitative rating scheme was used according to the revised n 3 of article 13 of the RJFCP, obtained by the trainee, according to the following marking scale which ranges between 1 and 10 marks: EXCELLENT: 9 to 10 marks; VERY GOOD: 8 to 8,9 marks; GOOD: 6,5 to 7,9 marks; SATISFACTORY: 5 to 6,4 marks; FAIL: 1 to 4,9 marks.
RESEARCH POSTER PRESENTATION DESIGN 2011

REFERENCES
Pereira, A., Mendes, A.Q., Morgado, L., et al. (2007). Universidade Aberta's Pedagogical Model for Distance Education: A University for the Future. Lisboa: Universidade Aberta. Pereira, A., Oliveira, I., Tinoca, L., et al. (2009). Evaluating continuous assessment quality in competence-based education online: the case of the e-folio. In European Journal of Open, Distance and Elearning: EDEN. Sitoe, R. M. (2006). Aprendizagem ao longo da vida: um conceito utpico? In Comportamento Organizacional e Gesto 2/12 (pp 283290).

CONTACTS
Carla Martinho martinho.carla@sapo.pt; Paula Vaz Fernandes: paulavaz@uab.pt *CAPP/ISCSP, Center of public policy and management, Institute of Social and Political Sciences, Rua Almerindo Lessa - 1300-663, Lisboa; ** Departamento de Cincias e Tecnologia, Universidade Aberta, Rua da Escola Politcnica, 141, 1269-001 Lisboa, Portugal; *** ISCAL, Institute of Accounting and Administration of Lisbon, Av Miguel Bombarda, 20; 1069-035 Lisboa, Portugal

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