A FORMATIVE EVALUATION OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY GEOSCIENCE EDUCATION TOOLS

Technology is driving a shift from the traditional lecture approach to a learner-centric model of teaching in higher education (Wright, 2011). In a survey of 783 students in an introductory geology class, only 7% were considering majoring in geosciences (Hoisch and Bowie, 2010). Digital technologies may be a way of interesting students in geoscience learning. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the effectiveness of a Google Earth-based teaching tool developed earlier by the researchers in the same NSF-funded grant. The tool is focused on marine sediment and uses Google Earth. It can be found at GEODE.net.

We have conducted a formative evaluation of the digital tool as three parts: 1) an expert review, 2) one-to-one student evaluations, and 3) a field test. The expert reviews were conducted by both geoscience and education experts. The one-to-one student evaluations were performed at a university in the south eastern United States. Data collection for the one-to-one evaluation used the think aloud protocol. The field test was be performed at the same university in a large class of 200 students.

The formative evaluation has been used to evaluate how well the tools meet the stated learning goals. The evaluation additionally measures ease of use, student engagement, and student performance when using the new lessons compared to traditional lessons.