INTERACTIVE MULTIMEDIA AND ELECTRONIC RESOURCES FOR STANFORD EARTH SCIENCES (IMMERSES)

The IMMERSES (Interactive Multi-Media and Electronic Resources for Stanford Earth Sciences) program commenced during the summer of 1999. The project is a collaborative effort between the Stanford University Libraries, the Stanford School of Earth Sciences, who each contribute 0.5 FTE for the staff position, the Academic Technology Specialist (ATS). The ATS works in alignment with the University's commitment to excellence in education and its general vision to improve teaching and learning by implementing new technologies. As a member of the academic as well as the IT community the ATS bridges two different cultures and facilitates a process of mutual transformation of pedagogy and technology. The IMMERSES program is grounded on the following beliefs: Projects are collaborative and involve faculty, staff and students, and technology development needs to be learner-driven. It's an iterative process, with frequent exchange between faculty, designer, and student. We emphasize good teaching over good technology.

The multimedia projects span the range of simply translating a paper/pencil exercise to digital format for ease of use, to creation of highly, immersive virtual reality experiences. I will review some of the following projects including the design, implementation and student reviews, an eruption at a mid-ocean ridge, California landform flybys, an earthquake locator using iterative forward modeling, quantitative map interpretation for mineral exploration, a marine chemistry data explorer, an interactive molecular phylogeny tool, and a particle settling experiment. While much of this work has been targeted at undergraduate courses, graduate students represent an important pool of learners, who are even more tech savvy and ready to learn in electronic mediated environments, and I will conclude with a preview of series of modules targeted at graduate students.