DEVELOPING E-LEARNING MATERIAL FOR PHYSICS LABORATORY EDUCATION

Abstract

An increasing demand for alternative ways completing studies require more supporting online material. We present here an attempt to generate online of material for physics education as a cooperation between National Institute of Technology, Tsuruoka College (NITTC) and Turku University of Applied Sciences (TUAS). The paper starts with a comparison between teaching traditions at NITTC and TUAS. There are difference in the balance between the focus on theory and experiments. Teaching at NITTC is traditionally more focused theory whereas is it, at TUAS, is focused on laboratory work. At both institutions, the process of increasing the online support is in an initial state. Supporting online material is available as is, but mainly for theory studies and problem solving. However, there are also some attempts to do online experiments. Both providing good support for physics education but as the material is built for a general usage they do not fill the lack of supporting material for a specific course or set of laboratory work. Our attempt is to create online experiments and support material closely coupled to both laboratory and theory classes. The physics simulators should have appealing animations combined with graphical representation of the change in the physical quantities studied. The visualization is important to enhance understanding the phenomenon. The aim is that our tools work as a glue between theory and experiment. One advantage with HTML5 is the simplicity to introduce it to students. There is no environment dependence, only a web browser is required to use HTML5 materials. The aim with the cooperation is that each partner design material to support their own education and at the same time share their material and good educational practices with the other partners. We use Blackboard as educational platform and to share the material. The choice of Blackboard was based on the fact that it is common for all 51 NIT colleges in Japan.