The e-learning courses have a technical aspect that requires a pedagogical design based on “doing” and “applying.”

These have the following characteristics

• Training based on skills and not content, disregarding academic education models of the past.
• Work on the bases of practical cases that may occur in the working world. This way the students will learn to confront problems which are similar to those they would encounter in a work situation.
• Use of material that provides a high level of interaction (interactive images, animations, simulations, etc.), in order for the students to be able to discover on their own all that is related to the subject.
• Re-enforce learning through the application of industrial tools of simulation, such as the CNC simulators or diagram editors.

In this context, when it’s time to tackle a course, we find different types of teaching/learning activities, in relation to the didactic unit objectives to which these respond.

These activities may be:

• Teaching activities: Those that expose facts, concepts or principles, complemented by theoretical explanations, along with images, graphics, and animation. Here, the student should assimilate the information presented in order to later on apply it to the activities that follow.
• Practical activities: As the name indicates, the objective of these activities is to put to the test the acquired knowledge throughout the duration of the course, so that the students may learn from their own mistakes. These activities may range from problem solving to drawing up diagrams or programmes using simulation applications.
• Evaluation activities: These activities assess the knowledge acquired by the student throughout the teaching unit or course. If the student does not complete these activities successfully, he or she cannot progress through the course, and the teacher has to take action to make sure the student reaches the objectives of the activity: extra activities, reading, exercises.