Abstract

Collaborative and active learning are intrinsic to the Topography Engineering major at the University of Costa Rica. These techniques were used to design a didactic strategy that was implemented in the IT 4003 Hidrometría course. Moreover, looking to introduce students to the social and legal water resource context in the country, the didactic strategy was divided into four stages. The first one corresponded to an individual activity about the water context in Costa Rica. The second stage was a group work in which students needed to summarize the water resource legislation. Regarding the third phase, it corresponded to a role-play. Finally, the fourth stage included the feedback process. The five open questions survey was answered by the students for the feedback process. The students who participated in the activity were the ones registered in the IT-4003 Hydrometry course in the first semester of 2021. This paper shows a quantitative perspective on the implementation of the proposed didactic strategy. In general, the results were satisfactory from the student opinion and academic aspect. Moreover, the didactic strategy allowed the acquisition of important abilities around the studied topic. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that role play strengthens soft skills, which are essential to integral learning.

Keywords Active Learning; Collaborative Learning; Didactic Strategy; Roleplay