Draft
International policy deliberations on global-change issues demand input from all nations and therefore require a cadre of policy makers who have access to the latest research results and global public dialog on a broad range of environmental topics. Policy makers from countries having transition or developing economies, however, are at a disadvantage because their domestic scientific advisors may not have the latest information and scientific tools to interpret impacts of global changes on their national economies and social structures. We have developed Internet-based educational materials aimed at bringing the latest global change information to present and future policy makers and university scientists.
1. Introduction
Issues of global change, such as climate change and water quality and quantity, are inherently international and intersectoral, requiring coordinated efforts from governments at regional and national level, private sector, educational organizations, research institutes, and the general public. The need for authoritative information on such rapidly changing international issues calls for networks of researchers and educators to transform research results into educational materials appropriate for multiple-target audiences and available over the Internet.
We have developed a global change course on the Internet for senior undergraduates and beginning graduate students. The course also is suitable for policy makers seeking an overview of global-change issues and current references to research results. Although it is suitable for remote delivery, the course is offered only as an on-campus course for Iowa State University students, and typically receives an enrollment of 30 undergraduate and graduate students. Students access the course materials from on-campus computer laboratories, publicly available computer facilities in the dormitories, or from home computers over private lines into the university computer system. Parts of the course have been used for introductory environmental science courses at other universities and colleges. The course is publicly available at http://www.iitap.iastate.edu/gcp/gcp.html.
2. Course Objectives
The course has three overall objectives:
* To demonstrate the interconnectedness of the earth's environmental system and to explore the scientific evidence for changes in the global environment.
* To instill in students the value of peer-reviewed literature on global-change issues.
* To engage students, by means of the Internet, in dialog among themselves, with outside experts, and with students from other countries on the scientific, economic, social, political, and ethical implications of these global changes.
The first objective emphasizes that the subcomponents of global change (atmospheric, oceanic, economic, social, etc.) cannot be considered in isolation but rather are parts of an interconnected system that must be viewed as a whole. The second objective promotes critical thinking on global change issues and emphasized the importance of authoritative literature and scientific consensus. And the third objective takes advantage of the global communication platform to engage students (e.g., present and future scientists and policy makers) in intense international dialog on these issues. Acquaintances and friendships built through a less-threatening educational environment hopefully will lead to more meaningful and productive dialog as these classmates move into national positions of leadership and policy making in their respective countries.
One of the difficulties in delivering an advanced course to a class with a wide spectrum of technical backgrounds is the challenge of being able to discuss advanced concepts. A typical class of 30 to enroll in our course draws students from about 15 different disciplines ranging from chemical engineering to sociology, so it can be a challenge, for instance, to discuss details of global climate models. The Internet platform offers help with this difficulty, however, by use of hypertext. Elementary concepts can be made available through hypertext links for student needing more background on a particular topic, whereas advanced students will skip over these links when reading the learning unit. This capability will be vary valuable in broadening the applicability for international delivery and delivery to a heterogeneous student population.
3. Course Structure
The course is a 3-credit university course aimed at seniors and beginning graduate students but does not require specialized background courses in mathematics, physical science, or biological science.
Blocks
The course consists of 3 blocks having the following titles:
CLIMATE AND AGENTS OF GLOBAL CHANGE
MODELS AND MEASUREMENTS OF GLOBAL CHANGE
BIOSPHERE AND HUMAN COMPONENT OF GLOBAL CHANGE
Each block has 13 individual learning units spanning the spectrum of global change issues. The course begins (Block 1) with a survey of observed evidence that our environment is changing on the global scale. After a brief survey of atmospheric evolution and global atmospheric circulation patterns, the course addresses issues in atmospheric chemistry, stratospheric ozone, and global warming. Global and regional climate models are discussed in Block 2, as are global measurements of temperature, precipitation, and other environmental variables and related issues of climate variability such as is revealed through El Nino events. Satellite platforms, satellite sensors and data derived from satellites also are discussed in Block 2.
Block 3 includes issues of deforestation, biodiversity, desertification, patterns of population and energy consumption, human health, agriculture, sustainable development, water resources, societal responses, and public policy. The material presented in one block corresponds to the material expected to be mastered for 1 semester credit in a US university.
Learning Units
Each learning unit covers an individual global change topic and has the
following components:
* Learning unit objectives
* Learning narrative (transcript of a conventional lecture) including images and links to other information sources
* A quiz over the learning narrative that is automatically and instantaneously graded and recorded
* A student-entered summary of class-time discussion
* Links to other related sites
* A link to the search engine for the Iowa State University Library
* A "question to ponder" as a post-classtime discussion starter
* A link to a publicly available post-classtime electronic dialog on the learning unit topic.
Some units have interactive experiments for students to complete and report results.
Electronic Dialog
Each block has an electronic dialog that organizes Internet discussion
for the entire block. The block dialog has a discussion site for each
of the 13 learning unit topics. Students enter questions, comments,
information obtained from sources outside class, and responses to other
student questions relating to each learning unit topic. In addition,
each block has an overall block topic and an ethical issue relating to
global change for which each student is required to make a response.
Examples of these are as follows:
Block topic: "In the international accord reached in Kyoto in December 1997, the nations of the world agreed that developed nations should cut back their emissions of CO2 but that developing countries, such as China and India, are exempt from this requirement. The US, under this agreement, is required to reduce its emissions 7% from 1990 levels (more like 15% from 1998 levels). Discuss the pros and cons of requiring developing countries to be a part of the CO2 reductions, and give your opinions on whether the accord is equitable."
Ethical issue: "Preservation of the planet takes precedence over individual rights, and, therefore, it is morally wrong for a woman to bear more than two children."
Portfolios
Students manage their interaction with the course through their personal
portfolios, which give the assignment due dates, performance standards,
archives of all their electronic submissions, instructor's grades and
comments, and responses of other students, faculty, or others to
electronic dialog comments. Students receive a message of the day and
other information relevant to the course, campus events, news items,
forthcoming TV programs of interest, etc.
4. Student Surveys
Feedback from students indicates that almost all are comfortable with the electronic platform and like the flexibility offered by the Internet. When the course was first up on the Internet in 1995, only 58% of students had prior experience with the Internet, whereas in 1998, 100% reported having used the Internet before enrolling in this class.
During the development phase when all materials were available for Block 1 but only partial materials were available for Blocks 2 and 3, class attendance dropped significantly during Block 1 but recovered somewhat during Blocks 2 and 3. No attempt was made to explicitly encourage class attendance because we wanted to examine the learning strategies and preferences of students. Evidence is clear that students prefer to manage their learning writing their own schedule rather than adapting to a rigid daily/weekly lecture format. Anecdotal evidence suggest that student who chose not to come to class were not at a significant disadvantage compared to those attending class.
Comparison attitudes of students taking the course in 1998 with those of 1995 indicated that the Internet is being recognized more as a vehicle for learning and access to real-time information is valued more than in the past. The organizational capabilities offered through the student portfolio were appreciated by students as a means of reminding them of assignment due dates and performance standards required on each assignment. Student performance generally has been improved with each new level of management capability and performance standard we have introduced.
A noticeable trend in student responses to the survey since 1995 is that a high percentage of students report that they are likely to access the course materials after they graduate from the university. This plays well with the use of such a course for university faculty and policy makers because of the rapidly changing nature of global change material.
5. Statistics
The course enrolls about 30 students each spring semester but is publicly available on the web and is widely accessed from off campus. In a typical month during the academic year the course received 100,000 to 150,000 hits (requests for information) per month. Off-campus accesses have grown to the point that fall semester 1997 accesses (when the course was not taught) were only marginally less than spring semester 1998 (when the course was offered). Accesses during summer 1997 (course not taught) were about half of fall semester 1997. Over a typical 24-hr period the access ranges from a minimum of 50 hits per hour from 3-5 AM and 300 hits per hour from 9 AM to 3 PM. Weekend accesses drop to about 40% of weekday access rates. Approximately 100 countries have requested file transfers from the course.
6. Summary
We have developed a university course on global change issues on the Internet for delivery to a broad range of students. The course is modular and, for the most part, adaptable for asynchronous delivery. Statistics show that course materials are widely accessed around the world, so it seems it would be suitable for use in leveling the field of distribution of technical information on global change issues. Policymakers and scientists from countries not having ready access to written materials on global change might find this as a first stop in getting an overview of global change materials.
Acknowledgments: Technical support for this course comes from the International Institute of Theoretical and Applied Physics, an institute jointly funded by Iowa State University and UNESCO.