Raising the bar:how UTEC is pushing students without letting them fall

Since launching its new educational model (i+), UTEC has focused on reducing topics but demanding a deeper conceptual understanding for its students. This gets reflected on a gradually increased difficulty. UTEC, as a fast-growing small university, it's starting to face new challenges like massification of education without compromising personalization and quality. UTEC is trying to figure out a way to tackle those challenges by identifying conceptual gaps and closing them with the use of educational technology. The result so far is positive in some Science courses: it allowed UTEC to gradually increase the difficulty bar of some evaluations for preparation by 70% in order to close the gaps between evaluations. This allowed teachers to develop more student-centered classes and aim to higher levels of Bloom's taxonomy. This article will describe the process, initial results, as well as the future challenges related to massive courses, personalization, and closing difficulty gaps.