Abstract

This article is based on a research project aimed at analysing the teaching and learning models explicit and implicit in the different uses of e-learning platforms. From qualitative analysis of the interview with the coordinator of the Virtual Campus of the University of Barcelona (VC-UB) and the focus group with the 8 lecturers, emerged both the explicit and implicit teaching models of the e-learning platform and the possibilities and limitations of its implementation. The descriptive analysis of quantitative data collected through an online questionnaire has enabled us to explore how teachers use the e-learning platform; the strategies implemented and the pedagogical added value. This research revealed that despite the UB’s careful selection of the e-learning platform, in which there is an underlying socio-constructivist perspective of learning, the evolution towards this conception of teaching and learning, which is neither uniform nor widely extended, is not due exclusively to the use of technology. In the teachers ability to make the most of technology in their teaching, membership or otherwise of teaching innovation groups has an important bearing; or their membership or otherwise of departments in which innovation is encouraged and valued and the creation of teaching teams promoted.

Key words: E-learning; cooperative/collaborative learning; improving classroom teaching; pedagogical issues; teaching/learning strategies.