Glacial Disposition Animation

By Rob Giles for Dave Croot Social Science & Business

This project was designed to help students understand the nature of glacial disposition under a variety of climatic conditions. I decided that an animated 2D representation of the various processes would be the most appropriate way to illustrate the process. The application was built using Macromedia Flash and is just one example of how animation can simply illustrate an otherwise complicated process effectively.

This project was created under the title of 'Glacial Disposition' which was intended to be a subsection of the Glacial Environments module which we hope to expand to include other animated facets examples and learning facilities within the overall digital environment and is a good example of what applications I think will be necessary to aid blended and flexible learning.

http://study.plymouth.ac.uk/Module/GGP2114%20AYAU%2007/Glacial%20Environments/Glacial%20Environments.aspx

Allocating Projects in the School of Biology - Speed Dating!

Dr Stephen Thompson, Dr Paul Ramsay, Phil Tubman

An electronic questionnaire surveys the specialisms of the staff in the School of Biology.

This is then completed by all students and the results are compared using multivariate analysis to 'match' the interests of staff and students.

Students are given a list of their top 5 'matches', and the student is invited to contact staff with similar interests to discuss ideas for final year projects. The process of handing in a signed Project Choices form to the school office remains unchanged, but the process of finding a tutor with similar interests is made easier.

This system was brought in to replace the manual process of previous years, which discriminated against University of Plymouth Colleges students and certain members of staff, who would become 'over-subscribed' very quickly.

Enhancing fieldwork using mobile devices - In development (07/08)

Dr John Rieuwerts, Dr Malcolm Nimmo, Phil Tubman

A new stage 2 residential field course for the BSc Environmental Science programme is currently being designed and planned which will be based in West Cornwall. This residential field trip is being offered as an alternative to current destinations (China, Malaysia and Malta) at zero cost and having a comparatively low Carbon footprint.

The main aims of project will be to:

(i) Develop a web based information resource with a generic framework, allowing future developments, containing academic information of each site to be visited and presented in an interactive form (formative assessments, images, video footage) and linking to a new LabPlus resource.

(ii) Underpin the information presented for each site with a video tour by selected academic staff. In addition we will use representatives from key stakeholder groups (Natural England, National Trust etc).

(iii) Develop a series of research projects (n=4) which groups of 4/5 students will undertake at the end of their residential field course. These will be presented in a special interactive “virtual” tour section, with formative assessment, providing students with hypothesese to be tested and guidance and information allowing them to develop a research strategy (sampling site, parameters to be measured, data statistical treatment and synthesis).

(iv) Pilot the compilation / transfer of all web based material (images, video footage) to a readable format onto iPods and assess their usefulness as a reference source for students in the field.

(v) Evaluate the interactive web based sessions with student questionnaire, focus group and formative interactive assessments enabling future developments.

Tamar Field Sites

Matthew Sharples, Phil Tubman

This site was created by the experiential learning CETL to bring together information of field locations in the Tamar Catchment currently used by staff from the University of Plymouth. It uses an interactive map to identify locations and link to further information on their environmental characteristics and educational value.

Click here to view the Tamar Field Sites website

Simulated laboratory experiments in environmental radioactivity

Prof. Geoff Millward, Ben Jaeschke, Phil Tubman

Animated representations of real laboratory instruments are provided in an interactive manner. The simulations are authentic in terms of the instruments, the data and the practice. This allows students to (i) prepare for lab experiments (ii) revisit lab experiences and methodology and (iii) broaden their investigations through analysis of virtual samples. All this can be achieved in their own time and in a safe environment.

Click here to view the simulations (Flash plugin required)

Phase 1 Habitat Management Learning Package

Dr Paul Lunt, Phil Tubman, Jenny Plackett

The package contains information on two local sites (Butspill Woods and Lopwell Dam) which are used to train students in phase 1 habitat survey. A formative mode allows users to ‘practice’ the survey process on one site prior to undertaking a field trip to the second site to collect data for a ‘real’ survey. The software features interactive site maps with example species data at key locations and ArcGIS base maps which are used to present survey data.

Butspill Woods
Lopwell Dam

Preparing for fieldwork - Wembury

Dr Richard Sandford, Prof. Paul Worsfold, Phil Tubman

This website gives support to students on the Wembury project which is part of EOE2204 Research Methods in Environmental Science. Not only does the site provide pre-field information on destinations but also includes video demonstrations of field equipment and embeds PowerPoint files on key concepts to support data interpretation.

The website was also designed to be used as a stand-alone pre-fieldwork preparation package demonstrating use of generic field instrumentation and fieldwork best practice. It can be combined with pre-field practice on instruments that are stored in Labplus.

http://www2.plymouth.ac.uk/science/wembury/

Fine Art Degree Show & Faculty of Arts Degree Shows Sites

Created by Becky Freeman (Learning Technologist, Arts) and Mark Pannell (EdaLT).

Fine Art Degree Show:
This was a interactive site illustrating the final year degree show work created by the Fine Art students and providing information about the various exhibition locations for each student's work. The site contains interactive floor plans detailing where students' exhibits can be found and was intended as a guide for the external examiners to use.
http://demo.lsa.plymouth.ac.uk/fads2008/
Faculty of Arts Degree Shows:

This site provides floor plans of the 3 Faculty of Arts buildings, showing the location of the various subject area degree show exhibitions for the Faculty. http://demo.lsa.plymouth.ac.uk/fadegreeshows2008/

Passage Website (History in Politics)

Created by Becky Freeman (Learning Technologist, Faculty of Arts) working with Dr Peter Hinds from the School of Humanities.
The website is intended as a resource/information site for students as well as external users and is currently still being developed. The site contains historical information linked to literature, and includes glossary notes and links to related literary texts and further reading.

Virtual Tensile Test.

This Computer Aided Learning (CAL) program was created by Rebecca Allen (Faculty of Technology) and provides students with an introduction to materials (tensile) testing. An understanding of materials testing is essential for graduate mechanical engineers. The simulator is especially relevant for materials science and structural mechanics classes. It takes the user/s through the essential steps of conducting a tensile test, shows a test being performed (in real-time) and then provides the specimens actual load-deflection data for analysis. The purpose of the program is therefore to familiarise the students with the testing equipment and to support or supplement the concepts and theories presented in the lecture theatres and tutorial rooms. The program can be used in a classroom environment (or embedded within a distance-education course) to show how the mechanical properties of a specific material (in this case mild steel) can be characterised using experimental methods.


For further information please contact Rebecca Allen - Faculty of Technology Learning Technologist