Enhancement of e-learning in geomatics by the integration of dynamic mathematics’ tools

Enhancement of e-learning in geomaticsEnhancement of e-learning in geomatics

ISPRS Commission VI Mid-Term Symposium

Cross-Border Education for Global Geo-information

3 June 2010, ITC Enschede, The Netherlands

Session 04: E-Learning methods and tools

Arnaud DESHOGUES and Pierre-Yves GILLIERON, Switzerland

by the integration of dynamic mathematics’ toolsby the integration of dynamic mathematics’ tools

http://topo.epfl.ch/exomatic/

OutlineOutlineThe context

The Geomatic course toward e-learning

Motivations

Experience and first assessmentStudents’ opinionAdjustments

Development and implementation of ExomaticSystem concept and structureDemonstration

GeoGebra in different ways

Student uses

Conclusions and future work

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The ContextThe Context- Ecole Polytechnique Fédéralede Lausanne includes 6 Faculties and offers many bachelor, master and PhD programs, altogether over 6'000 students.

- The funding program FIFO is encouraging the development of resources for training and testing of learning scenarios.

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- Focus on a specific domain of teaching: “Fundamentals of Geomatics”.

The Geomatics Course...The Geomatics Course...

Positioning of the basic course in the engineering geomatics domain.

Evolution of the number of students taking part in the basic course.

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Structure of the course

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……Towards e-teaching Towards e-teaching

Motivations for the developmentMotivations for the development

- Develop innovative resources for teaching the fundamentals in engineering geomatics.

- Improve e-learning tools with a focus on calculus exercises, saving on office hours (teaching staff).

- Increase the students’ autonomy in learning and in doing exercises by themselves.

- Facilitate the creation of datasets for the exercises.

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Experience and first assessment…Experience and first assessment…

Preliminary evaluation of the level of acceptance and the perception of utility of the different resources:

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First students’ opinion

Project history

……to adjust the program and implement specific to adjust the program and implement specific tools.tools.

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Development and ImplementationDevelopment and Implementation Current system concept and software design

LMS : MoodleDatabase : MySQL, phpMyAdminScript languages : Php, Javascript, JQueryInteractive Geometry Software : Geogebra

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Structure of ExomaticStructure of ExomaticInformation flow and process

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Demonstration Demonstration

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Conception Conception of the Geogebra base file. Construction of the datasets and the exercise WebPages

Online exercise Exomatic exercise’ steps Interactive Geometry Software Results, hints, methods and calculus toolboxes

Administration Students’ statistics and program activity

http://topo.epfl.ch/exomatic/

Access to the Exomatic exercises:

– – in different ways …in different ways …Stepwise construction

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– – in different ways …in different ways …Visualisation of formulas

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Example of calculus toolboxesExample of calculus toolboxes

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– – in different ways …in different ways …Generation of datasets (admin)

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Students usesStudents uses

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Students uses in preparation for the testStudents uses in preparation for the test

ConclusionsConclusions

- All the online resources are perceived useful by the students and Exomatic is a added value to the course.

- The latest statistics shows a strong participation and a very good level of acceptance.

- Students’ autonomy is increasing and their co-operation allows us to design further improvements.

- The choice of Geogebra is a clear advantage for the course which requires a high level of interactivity.

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Future workFuture work

- Deeply assessment of Exomatic by the users

- Improved the use of graphical tools for teaching

- Dissemination within the geomatics community

- Create a new group under the wiki pages of Geogebra, to exchange a collection geomatics exercises.

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Arnaud Deshogues +41 (21) 693 27 56

Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

(EPFL) Geodetic Engineering Laboratory

[email protected]

Many thanks to the ISPRS Commission VI and thank you for your attention.

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http://topo.epfl.ch/exomatic/