Taking each principle of good educational practice in turn the extent to which the GeographyCal materials meet the principle and how they might be used in the classroom to maximise the educational benefits are commented on briefly. The materials do not need a member of staff to be present to demonstrate them, but the students are likely to benefit more if the material is discussed in class and related to other aspects of the course. The learning objectives of each module and unit within a module are specified so that whether used independently or within a class the purpose is explicit. Figure 1 shows a screen shot of the learning objectives of the 'Social Survey' module, unit 1 Research Design. 2 Encourages cooperation among students - The materials may be used by students working on their own, but the evaluations show that most students prefer working with a friend and they often learn more when working with a partner from the discussions which the exercises in the modules generate.
Some modules work best with a group.
For example, in the 'House Hunting Game' students are asked to role play members of a family choosing a location for buying a house. It shows the application of GIS in an interesting way. 3 Encourages active learning - The materials have been designed explicitly to encourage this with plenty of activities and exercises built into each module. Some are closed exercises which test understanding, others are open ended and allow students to choose what to analyse. The following examples illustrate some of the range of exercises used.