Given the practical nature of the course, the teaching methodology and learning activities place it at the centre of the teaching-learning process, based on the combination of four types of strategies: lecture sessions in the classroom where the teaching staff will explain the theoretical content, practical activities in the classroom that allow the application of the acquired concepts, follow-up tutorials, and autonomous work. This teaching guide specifies the different activities, along with their specific weight in the overall distribution of time that the student must dedicate to the course.

Continuous Assessment

The final grade for the course will be the result of combining several assessment activities:

• Two midterm exams (35% of the final grade each).
• Completion of seminar exercises and participation in them through questions and arguments (30% of the final grade). Participation will be assessed based on the relevance of contributions, not their quantity.

To pass the course through continuous assessment, students must sit both midterm exams and obtain an average grade of 5 or higher across all assessment activities.

As a general rule, exams must be taken on the scheduled date and time, which will be announced well in advance. To be allowed to take an exam at a different time due to illness, students must provide proof that they were not in a condition to sit the exam on the scheduled date. In principle, work commitments do not justify taking exams at a different date or time. Any other force majeure circumstances must be communicated as soon as possible to the teaching staff, who will decide whether the reason is acceptable.

During exams, students will not be allowed to leave the room to go to the restroom. All students are expected to plan accordingly and act responsibly in this regard.

Failure to pass the course through continuous assessment may be due to two reasons: not having taken one of the two midterm exams (“not assessable”) or, having taken them, not achieving an average grade of 5 across all assessment activities (fail). If the course is not passed through continuous assessment, students will have the right to a resit (reassessment). The reassessment will be based on activities of the same nature as those in continuous assessment. That is, exams will be retaken with similar-format exams, etc.

Students who do not pass the course through continuous assessment must retake all midterm exams that they have not passed.

Reassessment tests are intended to verify that the minimum required knowledge to pass the course has been achieved. Therefore, students who pass the course through reassessment will obtain a final grade of 5. For this reason, reassessment is not offered to improve grades.

Single Assessment

This will consist of the following assessment activities:

• Final exam (50% of the final grade). The exam will be prepared using the PowerPoint materials available on the Virtual Campus and the recommended readings.
• Practical exercise (30% of the grade). These exercises can be prepared using classroom PowerPoint materials, recommended readings, and sample practical exercises available on the Virtual Campus.
• Reading comprehension assessment exercise (20% of the grade). This exercise can be prepared based on the recomended readings. The assessment will be conducted through an oral test in which the instructor will ask questions about the contents of these readings.

Plagiarism and Use of AI

A student who copies or attempts to copy will receive a grade of 0 for the course and will lose the right to reassessment. Likewise, a student who submits a practical assignment showing evidence of plagiarism or who is unable to justify the arguments in their work will receive a grade of 0 and will lose the right to reassessment.

The use of artificial intelligence tools is allowed for instrumental or support tasks (bibliographic search, text summarisation, language correction, adaptation of citations and references to academic formats, etc.). However, the definition of arguments, analysis, interpretation of results, and the development of the substantive content of assignments must be entirely the student’s own work. The use of AI cannot replace the intellectual work that constitutes the object of the assessment.

Any use of these tools must be explicitly declared, indicating which tool has been used and for what purpose. In case of doubt about whether a particular use is acceptable, students must consult the instructors in advance.