Teaching and Learning Technology Resource

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DESCRIPTION OF INNOVATION:

Ecomap is designed to provide students of ecology with a realistic experience in the methodology of ecological sampling.

REASONS FOR DEVELOPMENT/INTRODUCTION OF THE INNOVATION:

A more confined and controlled environment needed to be developed as an alternative to fieldwork which can be time consuming and affected by logistical problems such as distance, weather etc. This development allowed the possibility of being independent of such constraints and for students to complete their work outside formal lab time. It also allowed the coverage of more material.

TEACHING/LEARNING AIMS:

To introduce students to the methodology and problems of sampling vegetation and to introduce students to forms of statistical analysis and graphical representation of data through standard computer packages.

DESIGN PRINCIPLES:

The development of the innovation allowed for the combination of separate, existing materials that were used on various occasions, into one integrated 'vegetation simulation'. One of the underlying principles was to make the activity as realistic as possible. The use of the computer, where data is made available a screen at a time, is more like real life than paper delivery where students can see all the data at the same time. It was also guided by the need to reduce as much as possible the time wasting 'hackwork' students had to undertake with the old 'paper' system. It was also guided by the need for convenience - how useful could it be?

USE:

The simulation is used by students for 3-4 weeks in a semester long third year botany unit. From 1998, use will be in a second-year unit. It is a stand alone simulation that has been integrated into the unit as a preparatory activity for fieldwork which takes place after the simulation exercises have been completed. EcoMap is also being used at Melbourne University, Department of Geography, as part of a first year course, and at the University of New England, Armidale.

STUDENT SUPPORT:

The simulation runs on Mac computers in a computer lab (+ printer) and is supported by a lab demonstrator and a lab manual. The lab is open during office hours, but students can access the laboratory out of hours on payment of a key deposit.

ASSESSMENT:

Students are required to write a report on the exercises in the simulation and must use a computer in order to produce the report. This requires them to use word-processing, spreadsheets, statistical analyses and graphics packages. The report is worth 15% of the total assessment for the unit.

EVALUATION:

This has been incidental as a part of Student Perceptions Of Teaching questionnaire. There is no intention to conduct a formal evaluation as a new simulation is being developed that is likely to replace this one.

EFFECTIVENESS:

The simulation has achieved the aim of covering more material in a shorter time than was possible before. Early SPOT returns indicated that students quite liked using the simulation, although they had no other similar experience with which to compare it. I have found students can become bored if too much emphasis and time is put on the exercises. Although the system was originally designed to run on first generation Macs, it is still running unchanged on the current generation of PowerMacs.

HINDRANCES TO DEVELOPING INNOVATION:

The main problem has been unreliability of the original computers in the lab (‘aged’ first generation Macs that would occasionally crash) leading to student frustration due to the need to re-enter data.

ENABLERS TO DEVELOPING INNOVATION:

The most significant help was funding and specialist expertise. Funding was obtained through an Apple Development Fund grant ($3000) and expertise was provided by Mike Wheatley from the, then, Micro Computer Support Centre. The funding was used to buy in this specialist expertise allowing the academics involved to focus on the question of 'what they wanted' while the specialist expert could focus on the 'how'. Support was also provided by the Micro Computers Support Centre with the preparation of the grant application.

COST/BENEFITS:

Well worth while provided access to the right expertise is available. Two academics and a programmer were involved in the development. Costs: $3000 from grant for programmer time; purchase of computers through University Initiatives Fund (UIF) monies; subsequent updating and increase of computers from 9 (Mac SE’s) to 12 (PowerMacs) 5 years later through departmental funds. Computers are used for a range of purposes-undergraduate course and by post-graduates.

LESSONS LEARNT:

Unless you have the specialist expertise yourself, there is little point thinking of developing this type of activity, it is too time consuming to learn from scratch. Introducing an innovation like EcoMap is not cost-saving, at least not initially. Significant commitment of time and resources is required both in the development and use of the application. Another problem can be computer obsolescence though, as indicated above, this has not been a problem with the Macintosh.

MARKETING:

No consideration has been given to marketing as yet. The system operates in a Mac environment and a number of inquiries have come from PC users. A conversion for the PC has been made but has not been as easy to implement as for the Mac system. Others are using the application (i.e. Melbourne and Armidale) because the developers are keen to know how others would use it, but the right to charge at a later date has been reserved.

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