Resumen de Cooperative learning and embedded active learning methodologies© for improving students’ motivation and academic results
Antoni Pérez Poch, Fermín Sánchez Carracedo 
, Núria Salan, David López Álvarez
In recent years, a number of teaching strategies have been applied in higher education to improve students’ academic results andmotivation, with a focus on active methodologies. Embedded Methodologies1, defined as a mixture of learning strategies which arecombined in a single educational environment, have a potential for boosting this impact. Embedded Methodologies1withCooperative Learning, Just-In-Time Teaching and active informal methodologies are proposed herein. Both methodologies are anintegral part of the course design, and students are exposed to a variety of on-line and face-to-face activities, which enhance theireducational experience. The authors present a ten-year longitudinal study in which academic results and student satisfaction werereported by a standardized survey among 294 students attending a subject on ‘‘Telecommunications and Internet’’ at EEBEEngineering School from UPC-BarcelonaTech (Spain).The results show that these Embedded Methodologies1significantlyimproved students’ motivation and their final marks; in particular, for those students at risk of failing the subject, but not with thelowest grades. This approach was found to be the best predictor of their grades in the subject, among other factors such as theirperformance in the University Entrance exam. Students’ perception of the quality of teaching and their academic results weresignificantly enhanced when compared with those students that were exposed to only one active methodology or none at all, thussuggesting that a mixture of motivational learning techniques boost their impact on the students’ learning process and on theirmotivation.
