Online mineralogy and petrology

Abstract

The project aimed to build on the expertise gained by geology teaching staff in order to deliver online course material, including practical classes and assessment, for undergraduate teaching in mineralogy, and igneous and metamorphic geology in general. As well as migrating the existing course content to WebCT this will provide new and innovative learning resources that will have direct applicability to other Earth Science disciplines and other subjects taught within the University. In particular, two of the proposed innovations will provide a template for other Schools within the University. In common with Medicine, Dentistry, Biological Sciences and Archaeology, Geology involves the substantial use of microscopy. Although the types of microscopy vary in detail an attempt at developing a fully functional online petrological microscope should provide a framework that these other subjects can adapt. Furthermore, the project also intends to develop online fieldtrips that will include maps, video and other resources thus providing a template for other field based subjects such as Geography and Archaeology.