Using an Internet-Based Help Site with GIS-Generated Images to Enhance Student Understanding of Laboratory Exercises Mike Phillips Illinois Valley Community College This project was initiated as part of the GIS Access workshop sponsored by the National Science Foundation.

Physical Geology Introductory science course for college freshmen. Spring 2001 student background 66% of the students had not had a college lab science course 84% of the students had not had a geology course Lab portion of course is “open,” students must visit the lab on their own time and complete the labs with limited assistance.

Concerns Low course grade correlates strongly with low lab completion rates Lab completion rates are effected by: Students’ ability to manage time Students’ perception of lab’s value Point value of exercise Value for test preparation Students’ ability to understand the lab Students stop work on a lab if they reach a point where they feel they cannot answer or do not understand a question

Understanding the Lab Exercises Solution: Create a web-based help site to guide student inquiry. Use text to clarify key points and direct students to resources Use GIS to annotate maps and aerial images

Understanding the Lab Exercises Students working at home or in the lab will be able to access information that will help them through material that has caused confusion for other students in the past. Lab Help Site: 8/lab_help/map-plab.htm 8/lab_help/map-plab.htm

Development Model Identify difficult questions Unclear wording New concepts Poor student performance Identify key “sticking points” Develop lab help page content

Types of pages Guided practices Series of figures with text Guides students through difficult area Based on exercise or similar examples Annotated figures & text Identify key features on maps and images Indicate features to be identified for exercises (to overcome difficultly worded text) Direct students to other resources (esp. textbook) Clarify meaning of questions (i.e. When the question asks for the name of a “landform.”)

Guided Practice: Delineation of a Drainage Basin Map-based exercise. Guide students through a portion of the lab exercise. (organized in steps) The remainder to be completed by the student.

Annotated Figures & Text: Coastal Features and Processes Highlight key features on maps and images Clarify terminology used in text Refer students to supporting materials in the textbook

Development of images Map or image scanned in as a JPEG file Each overlay drawn as a theme Layouts used to set up images steps displayed as a sequence of layouts Layouts exported from GIS as JPEG files JPEG files were placed on the web pages

Future Goals Develop more help pages Convert some help documents to an internet map server Allows for more active inquiry Students will be able to click on question- related themes Fewer pages necessary Easier access to specific help topics

Thanks Russ Schubert (Roane State CC) & Terry Brase (Kirkwood CC), GIS Access Team Leaders Gail Hobbs (Pierce College) & Ann Johnson (ESRI), GIS Access Principal Investigators National Science Foundation