on-line course development in remote sensing at virginia tech preparing students for careers in...
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On-Line Course Development in
Remote Sensing at Virginia TechPreparing Students for Careers in Remote
Sensing
15-17 August 2002
J.B. Campbell,
R.H. Wynne, & L. Erskine
On-Line Remote Sensing Instruction at Virginia Tech
Jim Campbell,
Geography
Randy Wynne, Forestry
Lewis Erskine, BSI
Supported by Virginia
Tech’s Center for
Innovation in Learning
On-Line Remote Sensing Instruction at Virginia Tech Joint Geography &
Forestry Focus on learning
activities On-line delivery Dual use: both
contact and distance learning
Joint Geography & Forestry
Geography 4354: Introduction to Remote Sensing: An upper level
undergraduate and lower-level graduate students. Students with interests in remote
sensing, and in application areas. Forestry 5000: Advanced Image Analysis:
A graduate level class for students specializing in remote sensing
Joint Geography & Forestry
Develop consistency and continuity in the way that some topics are presented;
Consistent tools, approach, vocabulary; Allow students to advance in understanding
within a common learning environment;
Incentives for On-line Format
Broadens population of students, geographically both demographically
Permits accommodation of varied student learning styles;
Efficient use of instructional staff and computer laboratories;
Compliments other teaching approaches.
Development Process
• Understand instructional context
• Develop learning goals
• Select instructional strategies
• Develop prototypes
• Formative evaluation
• Assess each learning goal
• Summative evaluation
Stakeholder Needs
Course learning objectives should be matched to needs of stakeholders;
Difficult for instructors and institutions to develop this information;
Should be developed by professional societies, umbrella organizations,
Results should be stratified geographically, by size, etc, to enhance use
Overall Learning Model
Present basic concepts, knowledge & principals;
Guide student through an initial case study, structured to focus student learning on a few key facets of the process;
Present additional case studies, reducing structure offered to students;
Students then are prepared to conduct furtherWithout strong guidance.
Focus on Learning Activities
Students learn basic principles and techniques in classroom lectures, text,
or other on-line modules.
Develop on-line activities that apply classroom knowledge– lab, homework, case studies, or projects.
Dual Use
Contact use: In traditional classroom, or short courses-- reduce demands on computer classroom space, and instructional staff
Distance learning: serve students at remote locations
Course Architecture
Course designed to be used with a commercially available image processing system running on student computers;
Course software runs parallel to image processing system; designed to be as generic as possible;
Although the course guides students in execution of specific steps, it does not attempt to teach use of that system.
Evaluation & Feedback
Provide feedback to students, so they can focus on problem;
Provide feedback to instructors, so they can
tailor instruction to problem topics; For image classification case studies, our
module includes reference data, so students see error matrices for their classifications.
It’s the Students, Stupid!
Define learning goals to match student and stakeholder needs;
Match contents and techniques to learning goals;
Avoid use of technology that does not clearly advance a learning goal;
Use technology to address weaknesses in conventional instruction
Instructional Design Staff
Brings knowledge of past experience; avoids mistakes that others have made;
Brings objective perspective; if its not clear to the instructional designer, its not clear for students;
Brings knowledge of other projects with similar issues;
Provide ability to navigate within tutorial & within course