Developing Guidelines for Using Digital Media Visualization Resources to Support Student Inquiry in Online Laboratory Investigations

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Interdisciplinary (99)The objective of this project is to study the efficacy of visualization techniques in an online laboratory learning environment and, in general, the integration of media into a wide range of cyberlearning tools. The expected outcomes include a set of guidelines for integration of visualizations into a standardized online lab user interface; on assisting curriculum developers and teachers in identifying the types of visualizations that are most useful in supporting student learning in an authentic scientific inquiry; and on guiding their search for appropriate visualization resources in NSDL repositories.This project focuses on the ways in which learning experiences can be effectively designed by asking questions: about types of visualizations needed to support student learning; about the place in the learning sequence where each visualization and accompanying activity is placed; about giving a choice to learners whether they are directed to specific visualizations at specific points in the inquiry process or whether they are allowed to choose which visualization to view at their discretion. By producing specific guidelines, this project has a potential to improve the integration of appropriate visualizations into student scientific investigation activities, support individualized learning paths, and accommodate different learning approaches.The guidelines developed during this project are shared with the NSDL Technical Network Services Group, all end-users of Teachers' Domain or other NSDL archives. They provide more descriptive metadata that improves the search and selection of appropriate visualizations from these repositories and can serve as a model for improving resource integration in a wide range of learning contexts.