BUILDING A GEOLOGY WEBSITE: USING STUDENT POWER AND EMPOWERING STUDENTS

Roger J. Suthren Geology (BMS) Oxford Brookes University Oxford, England. www.brookes.ac.uk/geology

Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, Denver, 26 October 1999

Extended abstract

Students:

• get a sense of achievement from seeing their work published on the web
• acquire valuable transferable skills during web-based learning.

Two examples, from introductory and advanced courses, are described here.

In our first year Environmental Geology module, the first assessed exercise is for students to find and evaluate two suitable external web sites to be linked to one of our existing web pages. The aims are:

• to train students in using search engines,
• to get them to think critically about the quality of information on the Web.

This year, we chose links on

• "Earth's resources through human history" [part 2] [part 3]
  http://www.brookes.ac.uk/geology/8307/history.html
  
  
• "Geological hazards: past, present and future" http://www.brookes.ac.uk/geology/8307/hazards.html

All suitable websites submitted are then linked to these pages. A class of 100 students is a very powerful tool for finding information on the Internet!

Final year students taking the Advanced Studies module are trained in web-page authoring.

• Their first assessed pages are short contributions to 'Critical Connections', an illustrated on-line science encyclopedia (currently vailable only on Brookes intranet)
• Their main task is to produce a web site that can be used as a learning resource in our courses.
• Each student-authored web site is reviewed in draft by two of their peers and a faculty member, before it is refined and published on the web (http://www.brookes.ac.uk/geology/8361/home.html).
• Course credit is given to the reviewers.

Educational aims include:

• Use of the Internet as a research tool
  • to obtain information
  • to publish written work
• Critical evaluation of scientific information on the Web
• Involving students in the scientific process leading to publication, including peer review and subsequent revision
• The importance of copyright, through practice in obtaining clearance from copyright holders
• Web authoring as a valuable transferable skill

Over the three years we have run this exercise, enthusiastic students have generated over 20 new sets of web pages which are used in our courses.

Furthermore, students have obtained employment based on the web-writing skills acquired during this course.