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Using interactive virtual field guides and linked data in geoscience teaching and learning

  • Patrick Carmichael
    ,
  • Tim Stott
    ,
  • Kate Litherland
    ,
  • Anne-Marie Nuttall
Research Output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding Chapter

Abstract

This chapter draws on experiences of designing, developing, using and evaluating web-based Virtual Field Guides (VFGs) for teaching geosciences at Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU). The chapter briefly reviews the previous use of VFGs to support students’ learning by fieldwork, highlighting some perceived benefits. VFGs are considered to supplement real fieldwork, but not to become a substitute for it. We then outline the design considerations, development and evaluation by LJMU students of two VFGs: (1) the Ingleton Waterfalls Trail in Yorkshire developed for Foundation degree students; (2) a Virtual Alps VFG developed for level 2 undergraduates. The design and development of these VFGs was undertaken using different approaches and the advantages and disadvantages of these different approaches are discussed. The Ingleton Waterfalls VFG was developed by a team comprising two academics, one technician and two IT specialists. Based on the experiences of developing the Ingleton Waterfalls VFG, the Virtual Alps VFG, on the other hand, was developed by two academics, with limited support/input from IT specialists. The technological background against which VFGs are used has changed rapidly and continues to do so, with 'Web 2.0' innovations, 'open data' initiatives, and interest in how 'user generated content' can be used to complement and extend existing databases and online collections. These developments have changed not only the practice of geoscientists in general: they also offer new possibilities for VFGs and the role they play in teaching and learning. The chapter reviews some of these developments, in particular, the emergence of a 'linked web of data' for the geosciences, and concludes with a description and discussion of a pilot VFG which employs 'linked data' and 'semantic web' approaches to allow students to access diverse web based resources, to explore the relations between them, and to then draw on these in the course of more authentic assessment activities than has hitherto been the case. The chapter concludes with a discussion of how the development of VFGs and their associated technologies might produce a shift in their use from being visual representation tools towards the use of them to develop skills necessary in practice, thus assimilating online tools into an expanding and evolving set of discourses and practices, rather than replacing or causing the loss of traditional disciplinary skills.

Publication Information

Output type

Research Output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding Chapter

Original language

English

Pages from-to (Number of pages)

Pages 163-188

Publication milestones

  • Published - 19/09/2017

Publication status

Published - 19/09/2017

Place of publication

Dordrecht

Publisher

Springer, Japan, India, Australia, Germany, United States, United Arab Emirates, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, China, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Brazil, France, Singapore

Publication series

  • Publication series name: Innovations in Science Education and Technology
    Number: 20

ISBN (Print)

9789400769458

ISBN (Electronic)

9789400769465

External Publication IDs

  • handle.net: 10547/622207

Host publication title

Geoscience Research and Education: Teaching at Universities

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