Teaching Web Services with Virtual Environments: Improving Cross-Curricular Skills

Web services is a mainly practical software engineering subject followed by Computer Science and Telecommunication Engineering students at the University of Extremadura. Although the transmission of the main the concepts of the subject in question must remain the main focus, the improvement of studentspsila general skills claims for special attention with a view to business requirements. Besides, the mobility of teachers and students has increased notably. In this regard, new educational alternatives have to be found, not only to provide the possibility of studying a subject abroad, but also to improve cross-curricular capabilities. E-learning environments are the perfect answer to these requirements, where a varied range of activities and methodologies can be used to follow the subject virtually as well as promote cross-curricular skills such as addressing an audience, team work and preparing documentation. This paper describes the authorpsilas experiences with e-learning environments in the above situation.