This creates a need for improved communication among students from different disciplines and different geographic regions, particularly for addressing the policy and human dimensions of global environmental change. We have developed a Global Change course on the Internet for senior undergraduates and beginning graduate students. The course also would be suitable for practitioners and decision-makers seeking an overview of how the water environment is interconnected with all global change issues. Parts of the course have been used for introductory environmental science courses at other universities and colleges. The course consists of 3 blocks each having 13 individual but interconnected learning units spanning the spectrum of global change issues.
Some units have interactive on-line experiments for student to complete and report results.
Students manage their interaction with the course through their personal Internet portfolios in which are archived all their electronic submissions, instructor's grades and comments, and responses of other students, faculty, or others to electronic dialog comments. Students' reviews of research papers are posted on the web and linked where appropriate to learning narratives. Cooperative learning is implemented through summaries, created and posted on the web by small groups, of classtime presentations and discussion. These serve as a catalyst to facilitate post-classtime discussion. The interactive Internet-based electronic dialog provides an organized framework for student discussion on each of the 42 Global Change topics.