Project description

The Portobello Marine Laboratory, the oldest marine research laboratory in Australasia is celebrating its centenary in 2004. The New Zealand Marine Studies Centre and Aquarium is the public arm of the research facilities at Portobello. There are over 17,000 public visitors to the facility per annum and over 6000 educational groups. The aim of this project is to design and build an interactive computer programme that will bring students and visitors to the Aquarium back in time to discover how research has shaped our current understanding of the southern ocean. The programme will allow users to meet scientists, make marine discoveries, encounter local marine life, and find out how advances in technology have allowed further exploration and exploitation of the ocean realm.

Project description

Historically, the study of animal behaviour has been regarded as a "soft-science" - a reflection of the fact that it was perceived that the conclusions drawn were not necessarily based on "hard" quantitative, repeatable data. It is possible, however, to study animal behaviour scientifically by creating ethograms. An ethogram is a catalogue of an animal's behavioural repertoire, detailing the different forms of behaviour that are displayed by an animal.

Students will, in groups, use an interactive computer exercise to learn how to create ethograms from video footage of animals found naturally in New Zealand. Once the ethograms have been created a time budget can be allocated to these behaviours. This data will then be sent electronically to a server. The students will then have the opportunity to view the class data. In this way the students observe data that is not only objective, but also quantifiable and repeatable.

The Academic staff member that is involved in this project is Phillip Bishop.

Project description

7 Academics from the University of Otago and 3 statisticians from Statistics NZ explain how they use statistics in their field of research. The aim of the DVD is to create interest in statistics and suggest exercises to teachers to use with their students.

The prime target audience is secondary school teachers in New Zealand and beyond. A secondary target audience is high school students, University students and all people who want to learn about statistics.

Project description

The Archaeozoology Online Database provides computer based support for teaching archaeology students how to identify animal remains from archaeological sites. Such materials are often highly fragmented, and successful learning of identification skills requires repeated practice with both archaeological specimens and a comprehensive reference collection comprising specimens of known species and anatomy. It is impractical to have large numbers of students in training handle reference specimen that are often rare and fragile. The database allows students to call up images of any bone, tooth or shell likely to be encountered in a New Zealand or Pacific archaeological site. They can browse images to develop basic familiarity, compare images on screen to achieve low-level taxonomic identifications and zoom in on features of individual elements or examples of taphonomic characteristics. The image database can be searched in ways that mirror the actual practice of comparative analysis undertaken in the laboratory. In conjunction with the physical reference collection, the online database is both a teaching aid and a major research tool.

Project description

The primary aim of this project is to enhance self-directed learning by archaeology graduates of a significant set of disciplinary skills. It sets out to do this through the development of web-based tools for teaching 300- and 400-level students in archaeology about artefact identification and classification at both practical and theoretical levels. These tools will enable students to practice identifying archaeological specimens by querying a virtual reference collection of images and attribute data for a comprehensive range of artefact types, and enhance their understanding of classication theory by enabling them to experiment with different approaches to classification of the same sets of data.

The Academic staff member that is involved in this project is Ian Smith.

Project description

Project description

Note: In 2005 we are adding a search facility to the application created in 2004

By working with dung fungi, students discover and increase their knowledge of a wide range of fungi (covering all major groups of terrestrial fungi).  They become skilled in identification and gain confidence in tackling the identification of new organisms.  A web-based database which allows students to not only search for but add photographs, line drawings, species descriptions and measurements (of spores etc) will provide practice in the identification of the species students will encounter.  The present difficulty of identification is the major impediment to student enjoyment and learning.  Because the key is interactive (in other words, the key can be entered at any point using any character trait), students can identify species faster than with traditional printed keys.  By being able to add records to the database, students will be collaborating with classmates from both the current and previous years.

The Academic staff member that is involved in this project is David Orlovich.

Project description

The University of Otago, Otago Polytechnic and Dunedin College of Education represent a cross-section of the NZ tertiary sector. All three institutions have a need to respond to learners’ calls for comprehensive online information literacy resources so they can enable learners in structuring their own learning experiences. Online information literacy resources do exist in the tertiary sector but their quality is mixed, they are not underpinned by the ANZIIL framework and they are not designed with interoperability and a service oriented approach to e-learning in mind. This project addresses these gaps and demonstrates clear and immediate benefits for learners throughout the NZ tertiary sector. Online information literacy resources, which can be reused and recontextualised by each institution, are provided:

• To facilitate the development of skills needed by students for tertiary study,
• To achieve cost-efficiency over the whole tertiary sector,
• To avoid duplication of effort and,
• To facilitate flexible access for learners at all levels within NZ tertiary institutions.

This project will provide access to online information literacy resources for stand-alone use, and also resources to support accredited courses. The online modules will be designed for delivery via Blackboard or any other standards-conformant Learning Management System specifically so that the project will disseminate its benefits across all of the NZ tertiary sector. This will allow learners at all levels to access their e-learning possibilities effectively and efficiently. This will fill a current critical gap: there are currently no interoperable, online information literacy resources for use across the NZ tertiary sector. All the participating institutions have valuable experience in Information Literacy: the online modules developed through this project will be firmly grounded in this expertise and will also be at the forefront of current thinking and practice in e-learning, most importantly in the area of technical frameworks and interoperability.

Project description

The Te Whanake series of textbooks, study guides and audio-visual resources for teenage and adult learners of Māori is widely used in tertiary and secondary education institutions across the country. There are currently no resources available online to support the Te Whanake series and there is a gap in the provision of online interactive resources available for students to engage in Māori language learning. The support this project proposal has received from across the tertiary sector and the strength of commitment shown by collaboration partners indicates that this project is perceived as meeting an urgent and very real need.

This project will develop a series of online interactive modules which complement the Te Whanake texts and support an immersion/game-style approach to language learning. From a technical perspective the modules are designed to meet recognised e-learning interoperability standards precisely so that the modules can be used by a diverse range of institutions with different technical infrastructures and by a diverse range of students with access to different computer and web facilities. There is nothing in the module design which requires online delivery. If a student is using a web connected computer and is enrolled in a course where a Learning Management System (LMS) is utilised, modules can be searched for, sequenced and can communicate with the host LMS.

Through the development of this project, Māori language learners will for the first time have access to an online resource which is both at the forefront of current thinking and practice in language learning online, and firmly grounded by building on a successful and well-established Māori language text.

The Academic staff members that are involved in this project are Tania Ka'ai and John Moorfield.

Project description

The project produced a teaching tool (E-script) for the introduction of electronic prescriptions into the pharmacy undergraduate dispensing laboratory. E-script presents the student with an electronic prescription (which they can interactively amend prior to validation), an electronic dispensing manual (linked to several web-based resources such as online drug databases) and computer marked remedial exercises including pharmaceutical calculations and Latin abbreviations used in prescribing and dispensing. It can be accessed, via Blackboard, on and off campus at any time, thereby providing students with flexible learning, designed to encourage a systematic approach to the dispensing of medicines. The E-script template enables staff to change the prescription details as required prior to practical classes and allows for implementation into all years of the pharmacy curriculum. Staff can access E-script on or off campus at any time.

Project description

A web application developed to complement materials and resources provided to students taking the distance taught theology paper CHTX131. Originally developed in 2000 the web application has been upgraded during 2005 to allow staff in Theology to update material and text themselves using a web browser.

Project description

This project is a collaboration between Design Studies and the Department of Tourism. Hotel A.L.I.V.E is a virtual environment that allows students to interact with each other and ‘robots’. For Design Studies students the A.L.I.V.E project represents a real-world application of the theoretical foundations learnt in class, providing interaction with a real client (TOUR303 coordinator) and feedback from users (TOUR303 students). Two papers are involved from Design Studies: DESI305, who will design the visual elements of the hotel, and DESI402, who will design interactions in the text-based component of the application. TOUR303 students will take a role as a manager within the hotel and interact with ‘robot’ hotel guests. These interactions and the environment will be integrated with classroom scenarios that introduce and apply management theory in the field of hotel/resort management and small group role play that reflect on both theory and the Hotel A.L.I.V.E interactions. The CALT-funded element of this project lays foundation for the longer term development of Hotel A.L.I.V.E as learning tool. This year will be used to identify the scope of what is feasible and to develop a platform that is sustainable both in terms of its development and on-going maintenance. In essence, the CALT grant lays the platform for a project that has on-going development at the core of its educational outcomes.

To try out the Hotel ALIVE go to the development URL here (may not be available). Username is edmedia_Guest

The Academic staff member that is involved in this project is Richard Mitchell.

Project description

A program designed to allow Physical Education students to put theory into practice. Students enter a training programme for their own athlete and are able to get the feel for writing a sport specific programme. Teaching staff give students direct feedback on their training program as they go.

Project description

Project description

A generic web application which allows students to practice number use in a variety of contexts in different languages. The primary language application is French but the program should be designed for use, with a simple data change, in German and Spanish as well. The design should also allow for potential future use in Japanese, Chinese and Māori. Use in these languages will be explored as part of this project.

The Academic staff members that are involved in this project are Pat Duffy and John Moorfield.

Project description

This project is a web application rebuilt using ideas, concepts and materials originally developed for the Hypercard application of the same name in the early 1990s. A key feature of the web application not available in the Hypercard version is that teaching staff in German can now easily update question material and other text included in the program from their own web browser.

Project description

The aim of this web application is to allow students to review a range of diseases of the oral mucosa in their own time and at their own pace. It is used in conjunction with lecture notes and material in the practical classes. Images and descriptions of the normal oral mucosa and the various pathological processes involved in oral mucosal pathology are provided. In addition students can access images and descriptions of clinical and histological material from a wide range of diseases of the oral mucosa.

Project description

This proposal is to develop a web-based database for storage of digital images and descriptions of slime moulds. Students in BTNY 322 do a six-week exercise to collect, photograph and identify the numerous slime moulds that grow on the bark of living trees, semi-decayed leaf and wood litter. Students develop a good knowledge of the slime moulds, and an ability to collect, identify and illustrate them. Students will upload their own records (including digital images, descriptions, measurements, notes etc) to the database, and can print professional reports based on their own collections. Students contribute to, and feel part of, a growing educational and scientific resource.

The Academic staff member that is involved in this project is David Orlovich.

Project description

This program simulates a study done on the Tomahawk Lagoon (Dunedin) looking at the effect of grazing by black swans on the plant life there.

The data is not the data from the original study but is randomly generated to allow third year students in Zoology to

1. Look at the results of a pilot study
2. Design their own study using a completely randomised design or a randomised complete block design.

Rob Wass and Stuart Mitchell did the original study around 1990.

Project description

A collection of four online review tools designed to assist students with their study for the first year law course. This web application has been rebuilt from materials and ideas originally developed for a Hypercard program for the same course. A key feature of the web application not available in the Hypercard version is that teaching staff from Law can now easily update material and text included in the program from their own web browser.

Project description