Do-It-Your-Soil 2.0

Do-It-Your-Soil (DIYS) is an e-learning course aiming to teach the application of basic soil ecological knowledge to real-world case studies, thereby bridging the discrepancy between abstract models and real soils in the field. At ETH DIYS is utilized in the course “Applied Soil Ecology” which is part of the curriculum of the Environmental Engineering master and the Environmental sciences bachelor. The suitability of DIYS for both bachelor and master students is possible through the modular design of DIYS and its didactic concept. In this project we aim to extend the existing version of DIYS by two new modules. Furthermore, we will revise the existing course technically and content-wise and translate DIYS to English, which is compulsory for the future use of DIYS in master level courses at ETH. The objectives of these measures are to broaden the use of DIYS at ETH as well as at license holder institutions and to keep up with the scientific progress in the respective fields of science. The two new modules that will be developed in this project are a module “Soil Contamination” and a module on “Soil Salinization”, both of which are important issues in the protection of soils as an environmental resource, not only in Switzerland but world-wide.

• The programme has a clearer and more uniform structure, high information density, playful ways of dealing with the material.
• The programme has a clear structure and is well structured.
• The possibilities of selecting modules and of studying independently are positive factors.

The goal of the project is to extend the current version of DIYS with two new modules, to revise the course technically and in its content, and to translate DIYS into English.

There has been criticism regarding navigation and controllability, preparation for examinations and the uniformity of graphic elements and concepts. If DIYS is to be revised or deployed in teaching in the future these points should be attended to.

For students the main strengths of the programme were that it enables individualised, interactive processing of learning content and that it has a good structure. They particularly liked its good self-characterisation possibilities (user-friendliness, self-explanatory functions), its lack of (system) errors, its conformity of expectations (uniform design) and the appropriateness of its tasks for the exercises.

• It was apparent that the alignment of the examination with students’ DIYS content is important.
• The modular structure makes it possible to integrate individual parts of DIYS into existing courses. Even individual models can be taken out and e.g. integrated into presentations.
• Do It Your Soil is licensed under Creative Commons, and it is possible for faculty to make changes to the course.