University Library Support to Learning-Research: Resources for the Preparation of the End-of-Degree Project (EDP)

Background

The EDP is introduced as a compulsory training activity in Spanish bachelor degrees with Royal Decree 1393/2007. Article 12.7 establishes that “it will account for between 6 and 30 credits, must be carried out in the final phase of the study plan and be oriented towards the evaluation of competencies associated with the degree”.

The EDP is conceived as the academic culmination of the bachelor degree student's four-year learning process. It is designed so that in its preparation the students demonstrate the general and transversal competencies acquired in the studies carried out. Its difficulty is that it must be an original work, in which the students demonstrate the application of the knowledge, abilities, skills, and attitudes developed throughout the time in which they have been trained (Fernández, 2021).

The EDP, although considered as one more subject of the bachelor degree program, has some characteristics that differentiate it from the rest, for instance, the autonomous work of the students (with the support of a tutor), its transversal nature, the participation of different professors, the different subject matter for each student, and the greater difficulty of their evaluation with homogeneous criteria (Freireetal., 2015).

As established in the literature on the subject, the ultimate goal in an EDP is to provide enough support to develop self-reliance, recognizing that many students do not feel fully prepared for this form of study (Todd, Bannister, and Clegg, 2004).

Therefore, it is an important challenge for both students and professors who must do the tutoring. All this justifies the development of pedagogical methodologies and instruments to guide the process (González et al., 2013).

In most of the Spanish university centers, the EDP as a curricular subject began to be taught in the 2012-2013 academic year since, in general, the start-up of university degree programs was done progressively, per year or cycles (Vilardell, 2010).

Although the EDP may have common features with other higher degree projects such as master's degrees or doctoral theses, the truth is that they present many differentiated characteristics that require specific consideration (Anderson, Day, and McLaughlin, 2008).

End-of-studies projects were not frequent in Spanish universities when the EDP was established, so most university faculties had little experience to carry them out, and here lies one of the difficulties that will characterize the beginning of its implementation. The short academic period established for its completion is another of the drawbacks detected by students since its inception (Freireet al., 2015).