A generic EVO approach to understanding complex environmental systems
Abstract
Helping students understand complex environmental processes poses a challenge for educators in the system-oriented natural sciences. Didactically effective blended learning contexts are needed that enable students to build appropriate mental models and develop problem-solving strategies.
Based on previous experience with Environmental Visualization Objects (EVOs), we plan to develop a new generation of generic EVOs that can be applied in a blended learning context. These will include (i) Fundamentals EVOs for fundamental system understanding, (ii) Modeling EVOs for modeling processes and sub-systems, and (iii) Investigation EVOs for developing research skills.
Eight lecturers from the new Department of Environmental Systems Science (representing five of the six institutes in D-USYS) will collaborate in developing a broad range of EVOs adapted to the needs of their various disciplines, and intended for courses taken by several hundred BSc and MSc students. Built around this core, generic EVO technology will be developed together with a generic didactic approach and an approach for facilitating interdisciplinarity in teaching.
The ultimate aim of our project is to improve education in the system-oriented natural sciences by making EVO technology accessible to teachers, and by providing guidelines on how this technology can be used in a blended learning context.
Success factors
• Students gain more intuitive access to complex environmental processes.
• Lecturers critically examine their own teaching concepts as a result of using EVOs for their courses.
• EVOs can be flexibly adapted to meet a wide range of visualization requirements.
Innovative elements
EVOs consist of interactive and semi-realistic (3D animated) environmental visualizations that help students understand complex matters in environmental sciences and promote their scientific thinking.
Room for improvement
The following have been identified: (i) increasing the degree of interactivity towards modeling visualizations, (ii) the development of the blended learning context around the EVOs, including optimized guidance and (iii) the development of a generic concept underlying the EVOs that facilitates use and maintenance of EVOs.
Opinion of students
Most students responded that by working with the EVOs they gain a deeper understanding of complex system relationships. How students dealt with the EVOs varied among EVOs and years: Some of them took all alternative routes for a more comprehensive understanding and others just followed the most economic route for finishing work with the EVO.
Tips for lecturers
• EVO-like course contents need to be well introduced to students in the course before students work with them.
• Students value good guidance through EVO-like course contents and helpful feedback on why decisions they make while working with the EVO are right or wrong.