3464
Proceedings of the 18
th
International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Paris 2013
3. Groundwater
4. General deformation behaviour of soils
5. Shear strength
6. Slope stability
7. Settlement
8. Compaction
9. Monasavu dam: fundamentals
The Masters' courses in English are running at capacity and
students from a variety of engineering and science backgrounds
are more inclined to choose virtual resources that suit their
respective needs, learning styles, and language, while using the
same core learning materials. A further range of innovative
learning opportunities including online laboratory guides, pod-
and vod-casts, which have been embedded in mindmaps to
improve the clarity of the overview, efficiency of delivery and
to empower students to access a variety of resources, each
fulfilling several different didactic needs.
The pedagogical aim of the courses offered is to provide
students with a variety of didactic methods, so each individual
may choose the resources that suit their learning style best, and
therefore learn efficiently. Assessment is then made through the
quizzes (automatic, meaning students receive their marks
instantly), challenges and virtual laboratories (wholly or partly
marked by hand).
Students must solve all the quizzes, scoring a minimum of
40% of the total points, in order to earn credit for the course.
These interactive animations illustrate some of the most
complex geotechnical processes, supported by probing
questions. These animations are a part of the mandatory
exercises that the students have to complete successfully.
Challenges are more complex problems derived from real life
projects. These projects are explained using pictures, video-
clips, blueprints, geological profiles and text. Helping students
to understand from a practical, rather than just a theoretical,
standpoint is a challenge in all engineering courses. It is with
this issue in mind that the Monasavu dam chapter, online
laboratories (chapter 3.2) and other challenges were written.
Exercises are a compilation of multiple-choice questions and
arithmetical problems. They offer the student a chance to test
their knowledge and to prepare for the quizzes. While solving
the problem, the student receives immediate feedback whether
their answer is correct or not. A hyperlink provides easy access
to the corresponding chapter in the script.
Student course evaluations are enabled so that ongoing
feedback can be obtained, although the frequency of responses
has dropped off in recent years. Consistently high marks were
gained from student evaluations, although there has been
change in the students’ perception of the platform over the
years, which is analysed as well.
2.2
Technical background
GEOTip is an in-house developed database driven website using
PHP and MySQL. Since both programs are open source and
widely used, ongoing sustainability is ensured. In addition, an
Adobe Media server is being used to stream the video material.
Technically, GEOTip consists of three parts:
1. the knowledge based system, where text parts, pictures,
videos, animations and equations are stored in a
common categorized tree structure (multiple categories
are possible) combined with Meta tags;
2. the exercise questions, which are also stored using the
same tree structure;
3. the e-learning courses then make use of the contents
stored in first two parts.
New e-learning courses can easily be put together through
the integrated Content Management System by accessing the
knowledge base part to create an online script. Virtual
laboratory exercises, challenges and recorded lectures can be
added in the same way.
The platform has been programmed as a multi-language
system using German and English to serve the needs of
international students better. Users can choose the language of
the platform in the profile settings, while the language of the
content can be changed at any time. Adding a further platform
language could be done at any time, without needing a major re-
write of the base code.
GEOTip uses a multi-level access system, allowing IGT to
retain control of intellectual property. While unregistered guests
only have access to limited selected content, registered users,
who are taking a course, have access to all the content stored in
the knowledge base part of the website.
To make it as simple as possible for authors to create content
for the platform, a Content Management System (CMS) has
been incorporated. Through the CMS text parts can be written
and pictures and videos uploaded. The CMS also includes an
inhouse developed intuitively usable equation editor based on
Adobe Flash (Fig. 1).
An Adobe Media server is used for all the video streaming
services. An inhouse developed flash player interface is used to
access the videos on the Media server. From the client-side
only, a browser with the Adobe Flash plugin (animations and
video services) and Java (virtual lab exercises) is needed. To
maximise browser compatibility, the website does not use java-
script for the student pages. This solution enabled the
development of a double screen feature for the lecture videos
showing the recorded projector picture in a large screen and the
lecturer in a smaller screen. About a third of the lectures are re-
recorded for the German course in “soil mechanics” every year,
to ensure the material is up to date.
Figure 1: Screenshot of the inhouse developed equation editor.
Single and multiple choice questions and calculation
exercises can be created through the CMS. The numbers in the
question for the calculation exercises and corresponding answer
can be varied from student to to discourage copying in two
different ways. The first, classical option is to upload a csv
formatted file containing different numbers and the solution per
line. The second option makes use of an adapted equation
editor, in order to store the equation for the solution in the
platform. This reduces the time to develop a calculation
question. The accuracy demanded for the solution can be set for
each calculation exercise or globally for the whole course.
2.3
Summary of course evaluations
An anonymous course evaluation system was implemented in
order to assess student acceptance and to be able to continue to
improve the platform. It is possible to display multiple-choice
questions with this system, as well as to give free answers to
text questions in the context dependent frame to the right of the
main content on the webpage.
The survey consists of approximately 110 questions about
course understanding, assessment of the quizzes, virtual labs
and challenges and about the handling and layout of the
platform itself for the bachelor-level course “soil mechanics”. In
order to have the best quality answers, the survey is not just
