| Title | Collaboration Among Staff to Produce a Web Fieldcourse Site |
| Originator | John Stainfield |
| Department | Department of Geographical Sciences, University of Plymouth, Drake Circus, Plymouth, PL4 8AA, UK |
| Tel. | +44 (0)1752 233069 |
| Fax | +44 (0)1752 233054 |
| jstainfield@plymouth.ac.uk |
John Stainfield, in the Department of Geography at Plymouth University, has begun a Web project to create a collection of shared resources for fieldwork. Two features set this initiative apart. First, it focuses on a single fieldcourse venue, Malta, which is regularly visited by Plymouth students. John has already found at least 10 other departments of geography and environmental science in the UK that take similar trips to the island. This brings us to the second feature of this project: the collaboration of as many people as possible who are involved in such trips to create a joint resource that all can use to their mutual advantage.
The current idea is to bring together two kinds of resource on a Web site. The first will be descriptive materials that introduce students to the geography of the island, and to its emerging social and environmental problems. The second will include interactive exercises (for example, a vegetation quadrat sampling simulation) to enable students to understand more of the island through active learning. The former material will probably consist mainly of standard Web documents (in HTML format); the latter will probably consist of small downloadable Java applets or executables.
Eventually, it is hoped to extend the Web site to include material relating to elements that Malta shares in common with other parts of the Mediterranean, such as tourism, water pollution, resource exploitation, and soil erosion.
The key idea behind this venture is staff collaboration. So, if you would like to join in the project, contact John now!