The use of C&IT to support fieldwork teaching and assessment at the University of Derby

Abstract

C & IT is used at Derby in a variety of modes including pre-fieldwork training, post-fieldwork assessment and field-related courseware development as part of student project work. With respect to pre-fieldwork training, all students are required to undertake the UK Earth Science Courseware Consortium (UKESCC) ‘Field Safety Tutorial’ and to register their medical conditions on line using a Field Course Registration package. For field mapping, both the Field Safety Tutorial and the UKESCC ‘Using the Compass-clinometer’ courseware module are integrated into a programme of pre-course preparation sessions, involving the use of ‘in-house’ courseware, that must be completed by all students. Computer-based assessment of recent field experience is used on a number of modules to substitute for, or to supplement data obtained from, field assessments, and students are now able to submit field-related courseware modules as final-year projects. Future developments include integrated computer-based assessment of...