This year again, from the USQUID of the EITIC we are pleased to share with you the summary of the most relevant activities and actions that have taken place in 2018. USQUID’s activity focuses on improving the quality of teaching at our centre as well as on promoting and supporting innovative actions, which are carried out both by teachers and by the unit itself. Moreover, USQUID takes part in the writing of reports and documents within processes of monitoring, verification and accreditation of this centre’s degrees (at undergraduate, master’s and doctoral levels). General information about these processes can be publicly accessed at the School’s website on quality. The specific information about USQUID can be found at our own website, under the section “Data and Indicators”.

The USQUID at EITIC, together with the rest of USQUIDs, the CLIK and the UPF CRAIs, coordinates HackLab-UPF, an initiative promoting UPF students’ active participation in developing ideas and transversal and interdisciplinary projects beyond academic curricula. The HackLab project was awarded the Jaume Vicens Vives 2018 award.

Regarding 2018’s publications by this USQUID, we would like to highlight a paper recently published in the journal Behaviour and Information Technology, where we presented a piece of research on the use of smartphones and laptops in collaborative classrooms:

Full reference: Albó L., Hernández-Leo, D. & Moreno Oliver, V. (2018). Smartphones or laptops in the collaborative classroom? A study of video-based learning in higher education, Behaviour & Information Technology, DOI: 10.1080/0144929X.2018.1549596 and permanent link to the UPF e-repository: https://repositori.upf.edu/handle/10230/36270.

We would also like to bring to attention to the fact that one of the papers published by the USQUID figures among the 10 most consulted documents (visits + downloads) from the collection “Research: papers, congresses, books” of the Department of Information and Communication Technologies. It has been consulted 1222 times. (Click here for further information).

As for the projects coordinated by the USQUID, there are OSWALDO (a biannual project jointly coordinated by the Faculty of Translation and Languages Sciences and ourselves) and two PlaCLIKs: “Hybrid Learning: an Analysis of the Current Situation and Recommendations for Improvement and Innovation in Designing Distance Activities and their Links to On-site Activities” and “Prospective Analysis of Undergraduate Degrees and Master’s Final Dissertation at the EITIC: What, How and Why?” We would also like to note that a number of publications have been made public following the projects and studies, in order to convey their results to the academic community. Further details can be found under the section “Publications” at our webpage.

March 2018, in line with previous editions, the USQUID conducted the V Symposium on Teaching Innovation and Quality at the ESUP/DTIC (click here for previous editions’ summaries and programs). A range of presentations were delivered dealing, among others, with the results of the PDI (Teaching and Research Staff) survey on Teaching, satisfaction data in undergraduate, Master’s and doctoral degrees, the evolution of teaching satisfaction indicators, the abovementioned PlaCLIK projects, and innovative activities and experiences carried out by teachers from this centre. Please click here for a full summary of the Symposium.

Finally, we kindly remind you that regularly updated resources are available at our website, both for teachers and for students. For further information, please do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected].