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Information-related courses in a new international

study programme in ecological marine management

Presented at the IAMSLIC 1999 Conference in Woods Hole, USA

Paul Nieuwenhuysen pnieuwen@vub.ac.be

Vrije Universiteit Brussel = Free University Brussels

Pleinlaan 2, B-1050 Brussel, Belgium

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ABSTRACTThis contribution focuses on some courses organised at the

Vrije Universiteit Brussel (V.U.B.) in Belgium, that are related to information, in a new international inter-university postgraduate specialised study programme in Ecological Marine Management, named ECOMAMA.

1. Computer use, at the start of the programme

2. Information retrieval in science

3. Presentation of scientific information

4. Information and data networks (which deals primarily with the development of a WWW site in a scientific environment, a course in the option on data management)

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AUDIENCE for this contribution?

This presentation may be of interest for instance to

• persons involved in educating / training / teaching / "learning management" / instruction, in the same area(s),

• to librarians responsible for user education/instruction in their library,

• to organizers of similar study programmes,

• ...

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ECOMAMA: a study programme in ecological marine management (1)

• new: started in 1997

• international: many students from developing countries, besides some from Belgium

• inter-university: professors from several Belgian universities and scientific institutes

• postgraduate, specialised: starting students already have a university degree

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ECOMAMA: a study programme in ecological marine management (2)

• language = English

• organized in the faculty of science

• normally it takes two years to obtain the degree

• striking and surprising: this programme offers a large portion of courses dealing with scientific information (retrieval, management, organization, presentation,...).

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Information technology and information literacy

In these times of evolution towards increased importance of information sources based on computers and on the Internet, information literacy has become more important than ever, so that the virtual information sources become as visible for the users as the printed volumes on the shelves of classical libraries.

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Overview of the coursesrelated to information

1. Computer use

2. Information: retrieval, management and presentation

3. Presenting scientific information

4. Data and information networks

year 1

year 1 obligatory

year 2 obligatory

year 2 option

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Course 1: Computer use

• At the start of the programme in year 1.

• Students are guided by members of the staff of the study programme who have some experience with computer applications like word processing and spreadsheets.

• This course is important, because

»most of the other courses rely on computer applications;

»most students have not much experience in applying computers.

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Course 2: Information: retrieval, management and presentation

• Builds on the preceding course in computer use.

• Course in year 1.

• Offered by the author of this contribution.

• Deals mainly with information retrieval using computerized information sources. The aspects of management and presentation come in since the students have to organize/manage the information in order to present it finally in a report. The aspect of presenting scientific information is dealt with in more detail afterwards, in the following course.

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Course 3: Presenting scientific information

• Compulsory course in year 2.

• Offered by 3 lecturers, each one focusing on one of the following aspects:

»Oral presentations

»Written presentations

»Computer-supported presentations

• The last part will be offered by the author of this contribution, starting from the academic year 1999-2000.

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Course 4: Information and data networks

• In year 2.

• Forms part of 1 of the 3 study options that can be chosen by the students: the one on scientific data management.

• Most of the time available for this course during the passed academic year has been spent to the development of a WWW site in a scientific environment.

• As a first case study, the students have developed a second, larger and improved version of the ECOMAMA web site at http://www.vub.ac.be/...

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Documents, tools and methods to support learning

1. Documents with overview of contents and evaluation procedure for each course (printed + WWW)

2a. Series of slides related to the courses (also printed)

2b. Questions, tasks, problems,... for self testing (printed)

2c. Assignments for students during the year (printed)

3. A bibliography for the courses (printed + WWW)

4. Case studies as part of the evaluation procedure

5. Electronic mail to communicate with students

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1. Overview of the contents and evaluation procedure of each course

• This is an extension of the official course descriptions made available by the university.

• The most important addition is a detailed description of the evaluation procedure.

• These documents are distributed

»printed on paper for registered students

» through the WWW for everyone interested, as a part of the personal WWW site of the author:http://www.vub.ac.be/BIBLIO/personal

/Nieuwenhuysen/courses/index.html

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2a. Series of slides about the subjects covered in the courses

• The slides are used for projection during teaching.

• They form the basis for printouts that are published.

• All in English ==> suited for international audience.

• The importance is shown on each slide: from *--- to ****

• Advanced techniques have been applied, such as

»(inclusion of small animation video files)

»animations in slides! to illustrate flows of information

• Some of these presentations have been put on the WWW as examples, in HTML + GIF format.

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2b. Questions, tasks, problems,... for self testing

• These are included in the presentations mentioned above.

• They come in the form of slides all formatted similarly to distinguish them well from the other, normal slides that offer some course contents.

• These slides are used in the course sessions to guide the discussions with students.

• Afterwards they allow the students to test their own level of understanding.

04/19/23

!? Question !? Task !? Problem !?

Here comes normally a question or problem

for the student.

Here comes normally a question or problem

for the student.

**--

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2c. Small assignments during the study year

• Descriptions of small assignments to be carried out by the students during the study year between the course sessions.

• The aims of these small assignments are

»to stimulate discussions and involvement in the course,

»self assessment by the student, and evaluation of the level of the students.

04/19/23

!? Question !? Task !? Problem !?

Here comes normally a small assignment

for the students.

Here comes normally a small assignment

for the students.

**--

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3. A bibliography about the course subjects

• Hundreds of references are included.

• A suitable style sheet has been created which allows

»easy additions,

»automatic and consistent formatting

• The bibliography is divided in chapters, so that each chapter corresponds to a subject and to a presentation.

• The bibliography is printed together with the slides.

• The file is also made available through the WWW.

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4. Case study: the core of the evaluation procedure

• The case study approach allows for instance each individual student to search for information on a subject of their own choice.

• Each student presents the results of his or her individual case study in the form of a written report.

• The detailed outline of the obligatory report is provided as a part of the document that describes the course contents and the evaluation procedure.

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5. Electronic mail for communication related to the courses

• E-mail becomes more and more important.

• Through e-mail

»the students ask questions and receive replies from fellow students and from the responsible professor

»the students submit small reports to the professor

• A problem here is that the professor must spend many hours on e-mail communication with students, besides the normal classical contact hours.

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Computer programs used in the courses related to information

The computer programs applied nowadays to create and maintain

• the documents is Microsoft Word 97

• the slides is Microsoft PowerPoint 97

• the Web site is Microsoft FrontPage 98

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Courses related to information: the fast evolution

• Fast evolution of information technology, systems, sources,...

==>

fast evolution of

» the contents of this kind of courses

»educational tools and methods (WWW, e-mail, programs)

==>

»advantages (“cool” aspects)

»problems (time consuming...)

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Courses on information literacy: towards the “virtual university”

• Trends in universities:

»educational methods that allow study at any time and any place (print + WWW + e-mail)

» towards the “virtual university”

»from teaching to learning

»from “teachers” to “learning managers”

» lifelong learning

»distance learning

»flexible learning

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Courses on information literacy: the costs

• Development of course material

• Application of Internet in teaching

are

• time consuming

• not without difficulties.

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Projects on innovationin teaching and learning: overview

• A central framework and service is needed in each university to assist in setting up a learning environment for the future.

• Therefore, a few colleagues and myself have requested and received grants for 3 projects to study how to set up such a framework and to implement some innovations based on information and communication technology.

• I hope to report on this in the future.

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Projects on innovation in teaching and learning: Ecomama project

• Aims:

»more and better communication through Internet

—with potential students staying in their home country

—among current students through Internet

—with students who obtained their degree and who have returned to their home country to work in research and teaching

»making more information about Ecomama available through the WWW

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Projects on innovation in teaching and learning: project at VUB

• Aims:

»providing a framework (advice, software, discussions) to all professors to support more and better applications of information and communication technology for innovation in teaching and learning

» to implement information and communication technology in 1 course to demonstrate the problems as well as the advantages(the subject of this demonstration course will be ‘applications of information technology’)

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Projects on innovation in teaching and learning: project at UIA

• Aims:

»to implement information and communication technology in 2 courses for postgraduate students in information science to demonstrate the problems as well as the advantages(the subjects of these demonstration courses are ‘information and communication technology’ and ‘searching for information’)

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Plans for future work related to course development: overview

In order of priority: offering

1. more co-operative communication among students based on Internet!!!!

2. more information / materials / software / multimedia on the local web site for the courses !!!

3. the same also through hyperlinks to the external WWW!!!

4. access to the courses by other persons than regular students!!

5. computer-supported (self) assesment!

(6. web-based courses with adaptive hypertext adapting to the level and progress of the individual student)

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Plans for future work related to course development (1a)

• More co-operative communication among students based on Internet

»Aims:

—students learn better to collaborate

—the professor saves time

—learning is more independent of classrooms and of time

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Plans for future work related to course development (1b)

»Methods:

—selecting and implementing software

—adapting the courses to the increased communication

—testing this innovation;...

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Plans for future work related to course development (1c)

»Wish list for the communication software:

—messages can be received and replies are possible using any e-mail system that is already applied by the user

—functions accessible through a general web browser

—builds an archive of messages, that is searchable

—cheap

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Plans for future work related to course development (2a)

• More information / materials / software / multimedia on the local web site for the courses

»Aims:

—learning more independent of classrooms and of time

—updates can be faster available than with printed materials

—integration with computer-supported self-assessment, communication among students through Internet, information on the external WWW,...

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Plans for future work related to course development (2b)

»Methods:

—selecting software

—conversion of documents

—testing

—...

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Plans for future work related to course development (2c)

»Wish list for the system:

—from a master version, output can be produced in the form of a printed document, web pages, slides for a presentation using a projector

—the master version can be maintained and further developed on 1 notebook pc, independent of Internet or a separate server computer

—the conversion to produce output is easy and fast, so that updates can be made often

—cheap

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Thank youfor your interest

Any questions?