Educational Access: Introduction to Oceanography

The Ocean That Surrounds UsGeology/Meteorology 102: Introduction to Oceanography

These exercises were created by Dr. Karen Grove (© 1998 Grove) for use in the Introduction to Oceanography course offered by the Department of Geosciences at San Francisco State University. Other educators are welcome to use these exercises in their own classes. Please send comments to the e-mail address below. Commercial use is prohibited.

Instructor:	Dr. Karen Grove, Professor of Geology and Oceanography
Office:	516 Thornton Hall
Phone:	415-338-2617
E-mail:	kgrove@sfsu.edu
Course Home Page:	http://geosci.sfsu.edu/courses/geol102/home.html

Course Information

Course Outlines and Summaries

(updated during semester when course is taught)

Computer-based Virtual Voyages

These online homework assignments, named Virtual Voyages, were designed to more actively engage students with the course material in a large-sized, lower-division geoscience course for general education. The assignments implement the learning cycle by having students engage in explorations of real-world data before they attend class, where concepts are presented and applied. Students access the voyages via the internet, and use course-management software to answer questions and receive their scores online. The Virtual Voyages consist of informational images and text; multiple-choice questions that are automatically graded, and short-answer questions that the instructor grades online. Because students are introduced to topics before class, they come to class better prepared and more willing to participate in discussions. Students have responded favorably—they describe the assignments as an effective learning method, a primary reason for recommending the course to others, and a tool that makes learning more fun—and exam scores have improved since voyage implementation. More information about how the voyages are used can be found in: Grove, K., 2002, Using online homework to engage students in a geoscience course for general education: Journal of Geoscience Education, v. 50, p. 566-574. Because only students enrolled in the class can access voyages online, they are also provided below in a non-interactive format.