Evaluation Of A Web Based Learning Tool For Teaching Gis Within The Context Of Transportation Engineering

An exploratory study was conducted to evaluate a web-based learning module for teaching Geographic Information Systems to civil engineering students within the context of a problem related to crash data analysis. This module is one part of a National Science Foundation Course, Curricula, and Laboratory Improvement Project in which GIS modules are being developed for several areas of civil engineering. The module was used as a laboratory assignment in a transportation engineering course. Two days later students completed both an objective multiple choice quiz over the material covered in the lab and a subjective questionnaire. Quantitative analysis was carried out on the quiz answers and the Likert scale portion of the questionnaire. A qualitative grounded-theory open-coding analysis was applied to the open-ended questionnaire items. This analysis provided more detail regarding the perceived usefulness of the module. Combined analysis revealed a link between students’ perceived usefulness of the material and their motivation to learn. Analysis also supported the learning tool’s effectiveness and justified its further implementation and investigation.