Browsing by Author "Ranta, Matti"

The aim of this study is to develop high school e-learning material, which deals with the risks and opportunities related to urbanization. The scientific development of e-learning material in geography is very important because geography baccalaureate changes into an electronic format in 2016. Learning material which has been developed by means of design research, is based on scientific research and on the opinions of professionals who work in the field. Developed e-learning material will be published in Tellus3-textbook by e-Oppi Ltd. This study is design research, and in design research theoretical and empirical phases alternating in cycles. This design research is reported in four sections, which are 1) the theoretical problem analysis, 2) the empirical problem analysis, 3) the development process and 4) the development output. Theoretical problem analysis examined geography learning concepts, electronic learning materials and the risks and opportunities related to urbanization. Empirical problem analysis mapped the opinions that high school geography teachers (n = 82) have of the contents and the supplementary material in e-learning material which presents risks and opportunities related to urbanization. Theoretical and empirical problem analyzes highlighted the objectives and purposes of this study. The third phase was the development process, in which progress of the development was described and the development decisions were justified. In the fourth phase the complete e-learning material was presented and the learning material was evaluated in the second empirical problem analysis by high school geography teachers (n = 12). In both empirical problem analyzes the structured answers were analyzed by the descriptive statistical analysis and the open answers were categorized by the content breakdown. Based on evaluation of high school geography teachers, the development of e-learning material was successful. More than half of the assessors were willing to use the developed e-learning material in their teaching.