Implementing the curriculum in collegiate lecture courses

We have implemented these materials in several large (150-300 students) introductory courses for non-science majors and a small laboratory-based course for first year geoscience majors with similar results. Two issues must be addressed for successful implementation: 1) providing easy access to the required software and hardware; and 2) providing adequate technical support for first-time users.

The SAGUARO Exploring GIS Investigations for Earth Science curriculum requries the use of ESRI's ArcView® GIS software version 3.0 for Macintosh or 3.2 and higher for PC. To address this issue, 120-day licensed versions of ArcView® GIS software for both Macintosh® and Windows® computers are included on the CD-ROM with the student modules. ESRI®, the publisher of ArcView, also offers low-cost site licenses to educational institutions. In testing at the Unversity of Arizona a site license allowed us to install ArcView on computers in open-access labs across campus. The combined options for providing access to software allows students to work with these modules at home or on campus.

Providing adequate support to students is another concern when using technology for learning, as computer skills and confidence in learning with technology vary greatly among students. In small laboratory classes most students have had few problems completing a unit in 1.5-2 hours under the guidance of an instructor. However, we have found these materials most useful in large enrollment lecture classes where no laboratory experiences are available to students. In this situation, instructors have assigned individual units as homework and students have had the option of attending help sessions offered for each homework assignment. A five-minute introduction to ArcView was provided at the beginning of each session after which the instructor and teaching assistants helped students as needed. After completing the first homework assignment, most students required minimal assistance with later assignments and only one person was needed to staff a lab serving 45 students.

The above is an excerpt taken from the SAGUARO Research results (20Kb). For further results on this implementation including statistics of help session attendance, observations of student interaction and exploration, and application with differing learning styles please view the pdf document.