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SedLMS: LMS extension for Sedimentologyteaching and learning

Joao Marquesjoao.caldas.marques@ist.utl.pt

Instituto Superior Tecnico, Lisboa, Portugal

Abstract—Nowadays, there is no computer support associatedwith educational platforms for content presentation and evalua-tion in Sedimentology. Tests and exams rely on complex and ex-pensive laboratory support (samples and binocular microscopes)and paper-based material. In this thesis, an extension to theMoodle platform is created, in which there are used severalfeatures to virtualize some laboratory practices in Sedimentologyand to be used by the students in order to complement con-ventional learning in this subject. With this extension, teacherscan create virtual sediment samples and then create SedLMSactivities with specific contents of one or more existing sampleswhich are shown to the students. In addition, question typesthat can be used in online surveys are developed. With thesetools, it is possible to simulate some laboratory practices whichare sometimes expensive and not available anywhere and at anytime. Furthermore, not only can teachers submit several typesof sedimentary contents (photos, text or laboratory results) butalso interact with students in a simple and economic way.

Index Terms—Sedimentology, educational platforms, e-learning, LMS, Moodle, virtual microscopy

December 5, 2017

I. INTRODUCTION

Nowadays, the use of information technologies in the sci-ences education is increasingly important. Furthermore, inter-net has created opportunities to extend traditional educationthrough a new concept that is called e-learning [1].

E-learning can be defined as “Learning and teaching that isfacilitated by or supported through the smart use of informa-tion and communication technologies” [2]. These technologiesinclude tools such as interactive whiteboards, voice recorders,computers and specific software applications.

Currently, web-based systems are used with the participationof students and teachers to perform activities, such as sharingcourse materials and making assessment tests. These systemsare called Learning Management System (LMS) [3] andconsist of a set of tools and software applications which areable to complement a real teaching/learning environment. Thisallows learners to study anywhere, anytime and in individualpace. LMSs are used in educational institutions in order tomanage e-learning processes and, essentially, to improve thequality of education [4].

E-learning concept is used in several areas, such as Biology,Cytology and Medicine, but has not been explored in Geology(particularly in Sedimentology).

In Sedimentology education, besides regular learning activ-ities, there are more practical aspects because students study

and manipulate sediment samples in the labs with microscopesand other laboratory materials.

Taking into account that the materials used in Sedimentol-ogy are expensive and due to the wealth of information inseveral formats, it would be good if a learning platform en-abled the collection of Sedimentology material to be deliveredand used in the students’ learning and evaluation, in a practicaland interactive way for students and teachers.

In Sedimentology, like in other areas such as Biology,Cytology and Medicine, binocular microscopes are used.These equipments are expensive and not available anytime andanywhere. Because of this, a new concept called virtual mi-croscope [5] was created and has been improved over the pastyears, especially in Health disciplines. Virtual microscopesare computer-based programs that enable viewing, navigatingand annotating digital slides acquired from a camera-equippedmicroscope or a commercial digital slide scanning system.

Moreover, studies indicate that online environments are asgood as the traditional environments in the measured learningoutcomes and, when administered with care and continuallyassessed, online laboratories have the potential to complementand enrich geoscience education [6].

A. Problem statementIn Sedimentology, there is a lack of work on specific online

learning platforms targeted at the delivery of contents andevaluation of students in geology, in an interactive way.

In practice, currently only complex and expensive laboratorymaterial (loupes and sediment samples), and paper materialare used, which in certain educational circumstances could becomplemented with online tools and contents given in a lessexpensive and didactic way.

Furthermore, binocular microscopes and sediment samplesmay not be available at any time, which implies that studentsare divided into laboratory sessions.

Sometimes it can be hard for the students to use binocularmicroscopes in the right way to identify sediments with spe-cific characteristics that teachers want to show. Furthermore, asample has always differences at different times (as a sample isshaken, sands configuration can be easily changed, which cre-ates difficulties to the teachers when they want to show somesample characteristics). The use of a virtual microscope couldimprove this by allowing the professor to select appropriatesamples with the clear identification of relevant features.

Virtual microscopes have many benefits [5] for learners be-cause they have ubiquitous availability, photos and other data

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of relevant slides or rare samples can be digitized just onceand then made available to large audiences simultaneously,among others.

In Sedimentology education, there are used several samples,which differentiate themselves with each other in certainconcepts, like the environment and sediment characteristics. Inthis way, it would be more effective if teachers organized thesesamples by environment or certain sediment characteristic tobe presented to students for learning and evaluation (samplesdivided by modules) in an online platform, which could bedone at any time. These samples could be used for learningand evaluation purposes.

B. Solution

In order to solve the presented problems, the SedimentologyLearning Management System (SedLMS) is developed, allow-ing the presentation of sediment contents in an organized anddidactic way and the students’ evaluation with some of thesecontents.

As mentioned previously, several types of contents in Sedi-mentology education are used, such as sample photos obtainedin binocular microscopes, histograms and other plots relatedto relative frequencies of sediments by grain sizes, and videosshowing laboratorial procedures. The slide images obtainedin microscopes have been successfully implemented in otherareas, such as Cytology, however, this solution has not beenexplored in Sedimentology education (and Geology in general)[5].

In this thesis, it is created a system that focuses on takingadvantage of online resources and concepts that emergedin the last years, such as the e-learning. Consequently, anonline educational platform is provided in order to improveSedimentology education.

C. Results

In general terms, the main result is the virtualization oflaboratory work in Sedimentology, namely the creation ofa virtual microscope and virtual samples. This results in anindependence of binocular microscopes and other materialsthat are expensive and not available at any time and anywhere.

Moreover, this can be used in learning and evaluationcontexts. In the learning context, teachers can create SedLMSactivities with contents of one or more samples (such as photosto be used with the virtual microscope, plots of relative andcumulative frequencies by grain size, and descriptions) whichcan be used by the students. In the evaluation context, teacherscan make quizzes with questions related to Sedimentologywhich include the application of a virtual microscope oreven the students drawing plots. In the virtual microscope,teachers can add markers into the samples’ photos and makequestions about these markers. Consequently, evaluations canbe different for each student since used samples and markerscan vary.

In addition, these evaluations are more precise becauseteachers can indicate specific points of the sediment samples’photos with markers (sediments), in contrast to the real binoc-ular microscopes, in which the samples change over time.

D. Document outline

In this document, we begin by studying the state of conven-tional teaching in Geology, particularly the Sedimentology.

Then, in the background chapter (Chapter II), we analysethe e-learning concept: how it is generally used in educationand how it can be applied to Sedimentology, in particular.To finalize the background chapter, we present supportingtools that are already used in education of subjects similarto Sedimentology.

Moreover, in the Chapter III, we describe the design (re-quirements and architecture) and the implementation of theSedimentology Learning Management System (SedLMS) andthe question types to be used in online tests. These modulesallow the virtualization of laboratory practices in Sedimentol-ogy.

Finally, the main achievements of this work are described,which correspond to the accomplishment of the proposedwork, and we analyse at which point this system can beimproved in the future, with suggestions of work that couldbe done.

II. BACKGROUND

In this chapter, we study the actual state of the conceptsand areas related to this work. We start by describing the con-ventional learning and teaching in Geology and, particularly,in Sedimentology, focusing on the type of materials deliveredin schools for Sedimentology learning and teaching purposes.

Then, we research how e-learning is described in literature:how it is defined and, essentially, the advantages and disad-vantages of e-learning relatively to the traditional teaching.

Finally, we present some of the existing educational toolsused in other fields that can be relevant in the presentation ofcontents through technologies in an interactive way, namelythose which use the virtual microscope concept and LMS.

A. Sedimentology teaching

Sedimentology learning in Portugal is done in several de-grees of education, from elementary to university one. At highschool level sedimentary rocks are studied in different contexts[7] considering the frequent presence of body and/or tracefossils in these rocks. The study of these fossils provides infor-mation about ancient organisms that once lived on Earth and,simultaneously, this study could give valuable paleoecologicinsights.

Consequently, the study of sedimentary rocks is very useful.It is stated on the Geology high school program that theappreciation of the practical work as fundamental in learningand teaching processes is a great challenge, which includesseveral activities, going from activities dependent on paperto those requiring a laboratory presence or field trips. Withthese activities, students can develop diversified skills, such asthe use of stereo or petrographic microscopes, the graphicalpresentation of data and the elaboration of practical reports.In the following subsections, the topics covered in Geology(Sedimentology in particular) higher education are explained.

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The conventional education of Geology in schools involveslessons related to the following subjects: Petrology, Mineral-ogy, Sedimentology, Paleontology, among others [7], [8].

Specifically in Sedimentology and other areas related torocks and minerals, there are several processes in learningand assessment of the students, which can be divided intofour categories: learning objectives, activities, resources andassessment [9].

In learning objectives, we need to consider the type ofconcepts a student must learn, such as: the origin, compositionand classification of sedimentary rocks; mineral chemistry andclassification; optical properties of minerals in thin sections;relationship between mineral associations; and rock texturesand tectonic environments.

To consolidate these concepts, the students must participatein several activities in class or even through an online educa-tional platform, responding to quizzes.

These activities include the use of some physical materialsin class, such as mineral samples and microscopes, and theuse of some online resources, such as web pages and otherdocuments.

Finally, in assessment, it is time to test the students knowl-edge through practical exams in labs, which involves theallocation of students into laboratory sessions [7]–[9].

This implies that the materials’ availability is not full-timeand depends on the number of people using the same material.

Furthermore, the process of collecting several samples andthe use of complex materials such as the microscope can bevery expensive.

One solution to mitigate these problems is the use of virtualmicroscopes to replace traditional teaching strategies.

Virtual microscopes have been adopted in several areas,such as health professions including medicine, dentistry andveterinary sciences [5], and these are computer-based pro-grams that enable viewing, navigating and annotating digitalslides (photos) acquired from a camera-equipped microscope.

On the other hand, plots of several types are frequently usedin Sedimentology classes, such as the plots of relative andcumulative frequencies by grain size, and the ternary diagramsfor samples composition classification purposes.

The use of these contents (such as photos and plots) can behighly improved with online platforms.

B. E-learning

There are several definitions of e-learning in literature: toGogan [10], this term represents the use of new multimediatechnologies and the internet to improve the quality of learningby facilitating access to resources and services, as well asremote exchange and collaboration.

We have had an increasingly high interest in e-learning inthe last years, not only from the commercial organizations, butalso from the academic institutions. At a global level, it canbe well observed that the market for educational products andservices is rapidly expanding.

E-learning has become increasingly important in the fieldof higher education and educational communities for variousreasons, such as the rise of information and global economy.

E-learning is advantageous in time and costs reduction, incontribution to student independence, self-motivation, creativ-ity and other characteristics [11]. It also allows the repetition ofsubjects for the students as much as they want and an unlimitednumber of participants to benefit from the same training [3].

Despite the indubitable advantages of using this concept,there are some studies about inquiries done to students andteachers, like the one made in New Zealand by Guiney[12], which concludes that the delivery of web-based courses(courses fully taught via e-learning) has grown, but this modehas had lower growth than the delivery that blends e-learningand other modes.

Relatively to e-learning concept, it is necessary that there isan online platform supporting teaching and learning in an ed-ucational institution, which provides management, distributionand sharing of learning contents, student tracking, assignmentmanagement and online peer collaboration. This platform iscalled as Learning Management System (LMS) [13].

The two most used LMSs are the Blackboard and Moodleplatforms [14].

The Blackboard platform [13], developed by BlackboardInc., is a web-based LMS designed for students, allowing themto participate in online classes and providing a complete coursemanagement system in a flexible way.

This system offers features that allow the delivery of edu-cation through internet, such as:

• Creating courses: through easy workflow, it is possiblefor intructors to use the wizard to complete the initialsetup of a course;

• Course management: allows teachers to update anyfeature of the course;

• Course content: allows teachers to post articles, materi-als, assignments, videos, etc;

• Assessments and surveys: allows instructors to deliveronline, automatically scored assessments and surveys;

• Assignments: can be posted and the students are able tocomplete and submit assignments online.

The main problem of this platform is the fact that it isclosed and the price depends on how many licenses are used.However, this platform is a powerful system and in the lastyears, over 20000 organizations signed up with more than 20million users which show the popularity of this company.

When the expenses are not relevant to a company, this isa good solution because an institution can pay to have thefeatures as they want [14]. Apart from educational solutions,due to its flexibility, efficiency, customization and complete-ness, this platform can be used by governments or businessassociations [15].

The Moodle platform represents one of the most widelyused open-source e-learning platforms, that enables the cre-ation of a course website, ensuring their access only to enrolledstudents. In a functional perspective, it has easily configurablefeatures, allowing the creation of student assessment processes(quizzes, online tests and surveys), besides offering a widevariety of complementary tools to support the teaching andlearning process [16].

Moodle, as a robust open-source e-learning platform, wasused and developed in the last years by global collaborative

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effort of international community. Moodle is designed andcontinually improved to provide educators, administrators andlearners with a single, robust, secure and integrated system tocreate customized learning environments [17].

Like many successful open-source systems, Moodle is struc-tured as an application core [18], surrounded by numerousplugins to provide specific functionality. Moodle is designedto be highly extensible and customizable without modifyingthe core libraries, as doing so would create problems whenupgrading Moodle to a newer version. In this way, the oneswho want to extend Moodle core functionalities can createtheir own plugins. Plugins in Moodle can be of different types:authentication, activity modules, among others.

C. Supporting tools

In this section, we present an overview of some of existingtools, platforms and other work related to online support ineducation and virtual microscopy which can be relevant inthis thesis.

1) Virtual Microscope for Earth Sciences Project: TheVirtual Microscope for Earth Sciences Project [19], ownedby The Open University, is a teaching tool in Earth Sciencesthat gives access to rock collections. This tool allows usersto examine and explore minerals and microscopic features ofrocks.

Every rock sample is accompanied by a virtual thin sectionso that it is possible to study the mineral optical properties. Foreach sample, it is possible to use several tools, such as zoomfeature, simulation of lightning conditions and measuringtools. In the Figure 1, it is shown an example of a rock’s virtualthin section in which can be used some features, marked withred lettered circles:

• A: Choose the source light, which can be Plane PolarisedLight (PPL) or Cross Polarised Light (XPL);

• B: Zoom feature;• C: Measuring tool (angles or distances);• D: Rotation feature.

Fig. 1. Virtual microscope’s features [19].

However, this platform is not integrated into a LMS.2) NYU School of Medicine Virtual Microscope: The New

York University (NYU) School of Medicine Virtual Micro-scope [5] is an online platform that makes use of the virtualmicroscope concept in the Histopathology discipline. This

project is divided into two components: a script to convertimages produced by commercial slide scanners into a specificformat and a web-based viewer application.

Relatively to the web-based viewer application, the windowconsists of a main viewing area with a mini-map to provide anavigational overview. One of the main features is the permis-sion to any user to annotate slides with both markers and meta-data in the following categories: source organism, tissue/organtype, stain, developmental stage, preparation, section type,among others.

At the end, after one semester of piloting this system, theschool chose to abandon the use of traditional microscopes infavor of this virtual microscope system, having this solutionempowered learners to have greater control over their contentand work together in collaborative groups [5].

However, this platform is not integrated into a LMS.

III. SEDLMS

In this chapter, we first present the requirements whichthe SedLMS system has to accomplish regarding to data andfunctionalities.

Moreover, we describe an architecture that must be used tosolve the problem proposed in this work and the implementa-tion of the entire system, composed by the learning (SedLMSactivities) and evaluation (question types) components, includ-ing the used technologies.

Furthermore, we analyse the results of the test done by somespecialists with our system.

A. Requirements

The users of this system are students and teachers of aneducational institution. Only teachers can add new data tothe system. The new contents inserted by the teachers aresamples, SedLMS activities and evaluations. Students willaccess SedLMS activities and solve evaluations.

1) Sample data: A sample should contain: a name andweights of sediments by dimensional interval (φ). Theseweights are acquired after the separation of sediments bygrain size, using one sieve for each size. Optionally, a samplecan also contain latitude and longitude coordinates of theplace where the sample was collected, a generic descriptionof the sample and binocular descriptions (texture, calibration,roundness, brightness and surface state).

Additionally, each sample can contain photos, which arestored in a file repository, and the rest of data (descriptionsand others) is saved in the server database.

Relatively to the photos, some features, such as measuringtools (to estimate sediments sizes in photos) and zoom (virtualmicroscopy), can be used.

The weights of sediments by dimensional interval are usedto construct relative and cumulative frequencies plots.

After creating a new sample, a teacher can import photos tothe system to associate with this sample and, if it is supposedto use that photo in microscopy analysis, a teacher must inserta dimensional reference for each image that is used to calculatethe photo’s scale, in pixels/micrometers. Students can use

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measuring tools (like a scale ruler and a custom cursor) tomake distance measurements in these images correctly.

For each sample, teachers can add annotations in specificpoints or areas in relative and cumulative frequencies plotsand they can add markers on photos with descriptions inthe following categories: dimensions, composition, sphericity,roundness, brightness and surface state.

Up until this point, we only have a collection of sampleswhich are not organized or even divided into modules to beshown to students.

2) Learning contents: Students do not have direct accessto samples, because the samples can be used in this systemfor learning and evaluation purposes. After created, samplesare private for students and are only available for the teach-ers. Then, the teachers have the possibility to choose whichsamples are used for learning and evaluation purposes. Thisway, students can only view the sample contents selected bythe teachers for learning purposes. To provide samples in anorganized way and/or divided into modules, a teacher cancreate SedLMS activities. Each SedLMS activity has a nameand a description.

SedLMS activities are available for students and can containone or more contents of one or more samples. Moreover,teachers can attach an additional description for each of thesecontents. The purpose of these activities is to provide asolution to organize existing samples and to allow studentsto compare different samples in a specific type of samplecontent, such as the relative and cumulative frequencies plots.Moreover, it allows to take advantage of using the samesamples in all the SedLMS activities, into the same course.In other words, a sample is only created once (through aninterface) and it is used over and over again, for learning andevaluation purposes.

SedLMS activities and samples are the learning componentof this system.

3) Question types: An effective LMS may also providesupport for the evaluation of the students. In this way, somequestion types related to sedimentary contents have to becreated.

In Sedimentology, it is important that students can identifyand classify sediment samples according to different character-istics, such as dimensions, roundness and sphericity of sands.Students use binocular microscopes in classrooms to classifysediment samples. However, this type of equipments is limitedand cannot be used any time and anywhere. In addition, it canbe hard to identify certain sediments and to clearly explain tothe teacher certain sediments characteristics.

These problems can be solved (in evaluation contexts) bycreating some question types into a LMS to explore theseconcepts.

Moreover, different types of plots are used in Sedimen-tology to quantify sediments (usually percentages are used)by grain size or even according to the type of composition,which include: histograms, frequencies curves and ternarydiagrams.

In this work, one of the main goals is to develop interactivequestion types which extend the existing question types. Inaddition, sedimentary contents already created in the system

must be easily chosen by the teachers (through an intuitiveinterface) to be used by the students when answering questionson quizzes.

In this thesis, we create three question types: Sedimentologymarkers, Sedimentology multiple choice and Draw plot. Eachof these question types is divided into several sub questiontypes. The most important sub question types are presentedin the Table I, with particular emphasis for the contents thatthe teachers must provide in the question text, and the type ofanswer that the students must give.

B. Architecture

The Figure 2 presents a block diagram model composed bythe components of the SedLMS system.

Fig. 2. Block diagram of the SedLMS system.

As we can see in a block model view, we have onecomponent in front-end (presentation to the clients) and theothers in back-end (working in the web server/servers).

Relatively to the components in back-end, we have com-ponents responsible for processing and storing data relatedto samples, SedLMS activities and developed question types.For each of the latter, we need an editor where content iscreated, modified or removed: Sample editor, Content editorand Question editor.

A dashed borderline in the question types component in-dicates that this is extended by us in this work. The redcomponents are used in this work and are provided by theMoodle platforms. The other components are fully developedby us.

Samples, SedLMS activities and questions data must bestored in the file repository (images) and in a relationaldatabase, and this data can be interchanged between existingcomponents (for example, sample data can be used in sample,SedLMS activities or question contexts).

Sample contents are the background of the SedLMS system:these contents are used in SedLMS activities and the questionsdeveloped in this work (related to Sedimentology).

To turn this system into an effective LMS, we decided touse Moodle to provide the basic features of an educational

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TABLE ISUB QUESTION TYPES THAT CAN BE USED IN SEDIMENTOLOGY.

Subquestiontype

Description Question Answer

Sedimentology markersQ1 Teachers mark some sedi-

ments on an existing sam-ple photo and the stu-dents give a textual an-swer (essay), using virtualmicroscopy tools (zoomand measuring tools) onthe sample photo.

Q2 Teachers choose a sam-ple photo and the studentsgive a textual answer (es-say) and mark some sed-iments on the samplephoto, using virtual mi-croscopy tools (zoom andmeasuring tools).

Draw plotQ3 Students draw a histogram

and give a textual answer(essay).

Q4 Students draw a curve andgive a textual answer (es-say) when answering to aquestion.

Q5 Teachers draw a ternarydiagram (including a titleand three axis) with somepoints, and students mustgive a textual answer (es-say).

Q6 Teachers draw a ternarydiagram (including a titleand three axis), and stu-dents must give a textualanswer (essay) and marksome points on the ternarydiagram.

Sedimentology multiple choiceQ7 Teachers choose a sam-

ple photo on question textand mark some sediments(with different marker col-ors), and students chooseone of the possible an-swers (multiple choice),using virtual microscopytools (zoom and mea-surements) on the samplephoto.

Q8 Teachers choose a sam-ple photo on question textand draw some plots (orchoose existing plots inSedLMS activities), andstudents choose one of thepossible answers (multiplechoice).

Q9 Teachers draw a ternarydiagram (including a title,three axis and points), andstudents must choose one(or more) of the possibleanswers.

platform, like the users (students and teachers), each of themwith their own roles, and courses.

Moodle is open-source and it has the components we needas background (a functional LMS). It provides APIs that canbe easily used in the web development.

This solution includes a standard Moodle database relatedto all the data that is necessary in an educational platform andit allows to provide an online environment which is reliable,

secure, efficient, among others. Between this data, there areinformations regarding the users, courses, repositories andothers relevant in learning management.

C. Implementation

In this section, we explain Moodle and the complementarylibraries used.

1) Moodle: First of all, we start by the LMS we use: theMoodle platform (version 3.1). Besides being open-source,this platform provides all the features that we need (previ-ously described). In general, there are developed one activitymodule/plugin (SedLMS) and three question types to work inquizzes of the Moodle platform. Each of these question typesis divided in several variants. These modules follow the samestandards/practices of the other activities and question typesin Moodle. Each of these modules is composed by back-endcode, in PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) language, andfront-end code, in JavaScript, HyperText Markup Language(HTML) and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS).

a) Server-side implementation: In the server-side (fortesting purposes), it is used XAMPP (installed locally on apersonal computer), which is a fully functional web serverpackage including a web server (Apache, version 2.4), adatabase (MySQL, version 5.5) and a scripting language (PHP,version 5.4) [18]. The Moodle platform (including the filerepository) is installed in this Apache server and a MySQLdatabase is created to be used in the Moodle platform (whichcan be managed through the phpMyAdmin utility includedwith XAMPP or even an external resource, such as MySQLWorkbench).

b) Client-side implementation: In the client-side, theusers need to have a web browser that supports JavaScript andother languages related to the layout of the pages (HTML,CSS), jQuery, among others. In the SedLMS system archi-tecture, there are several Uniform Resource Locator (URL)endpoints to which the clients can access.

2) Complementary Libraries: Some complementary li-braries are used in the SedLMS system, namely the Leaflet0.6.4 [20] and Plotly 1.23.1 [21].

Leaflet is an open-source JavaScript library that allowsthe use of virtual microscopes and works efficiently in mostexisting computers and mobile platforms, besides being eas-ily extensible to most plugins. Leaflet API [20] is well-documented and divided into categories, has a simple andreadable source code, and is similar to Google Maps API [22],with the difference that the first is totally free. These librariesare mainly used with geographic maps, but not only in thesecases. It is possible to use all the functionalities that are usedin geographic maps (such as the zoom feature) in images thatare not geographic: in customized images. In Sedimentology,these functionalities can be applied in the virtualization of realmicroscopes and sediment samples photos.

Plotly is an open-source JavaScript library [21] that allowsthe creation of plots into web pages, developed in the top ofd3.js and WebGL. Mostly plotly graphs are drawn with SVG(Scalable Vector Graphics), which offers great compatibilityacross browsers and uses stack.gl for high performance 2D

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and 3D charting. This library allows the use of 20 chart types,which include 3D charts, statistical graphs and SVG maps.In Sedimentology, this can be helpful in the construction ofplots of relative and cumulative frequencies by grain size andternary diagrams.

Moreover, the OpenStreetMap is used to provide geographicmaps to show the places where the samples are collected.

D. Evaluation

In this section, two main topics are explained: functionaland user validation.

1) Functional validation: This subsection describes theimplementation of the functional requirements.

a) Install the modules into the Moodle system: Beforeanything else, the administrator needs to put the SedLMSfolder in the “mod” directory and install it, which can be donein the administration page into Moodle. With this module, itis possible to create samples and SedLMS activities relatedto Sedimentology. Then, the question types developed in thisthesis (which are based on the SedLMS module) must beplaced in the “question/type” directory and installed in thesame way (in the administration page). After that, it is possibleto use questions related to Sedimentology in quizzes. Thisprocedure follows the good practices and standards related tothe installation of new modules into Moodle.

b) Create a sample: In this system, a sample is a groupof specific contents related to a real sediment sample. Thesecontents are based on photos, plots and descriptions. As itis intended to use this type of contents in both learningand evaluation contexts, these samples are initially private.Teachers can reuse some or all the contents from one or moresamples with ease, supplied to the students in a didactic andorganized way, for learning purposes or even used in quizzes.

When creating a new sample, the teacher has to introduce aname to the new sample. Moreover, the teacher can introducelatitude and longitude coordinates of the place where thesample was collected, sample descriptions and weights of sed-iments (in grams) by grain size (φ) acquired in a granulometricanalysis.

c) Edit sample: Teachers can edit existing samples bychanging sample data: sample descriptions and weights ofsediments (in grams) by grain size (φ). Moreover, teacherscan import photos to be associated with a sample and theycan add markers on that photos containing descriptions inseveral categories, such as composition and roundness, or evenannotations to plots that are shown to the students.

d) View a sample: While viewing a sample, several con-tents are presented, which are following described. Relativelyto the descriptions within a sample, there are presented, inaddition to a general description, two tables: one of themcontains sample descriptions and another contains statisticalparameters calculated through the method of moments. More-over, it is displayed a map to show the location where thesample was collected. One of the samples’ contents is a virtualmicroscope, which is used with sample photos and additionalfeatures. The main purpose of this virtual microscope is tosimulate some features of the real binocular microscope. In

the Figure 3, it is shown an example of virtual microscopewith several functionalities. It is possible to use measuringtools, such as a customized cursor which can be useful in thedetermination of grains size categories (letters A, C and D)and a scale ruler (letters F and G) to calculate more exactdimensions. Moreover, an user can: switch between existingphotos (letter B) and select the markers of a specific category(letter E).

Fig. 3. Virtual microscope used in samples.

In addition, it is also possible to view specific categorydescriptions by markers: dimensions, composition, roundness,sphericity, brightness and surface state (letter E).

Finally, the weights of sediments inserted by the teacher areused to construct automatically the relative and cumulativefrequency graphs. In these graphs, the teacher can enterannotations in specific points or in specific areas (rectangularor free-form).

After creating several samples, the teacher can createSedLMS activities that are made available to the students. ASedLMS activity is made up of specific contents of one ormore samples and additional text. Teachers can, for example,create an activity only with relative and/or cumulative fre-quency graphs of several samples and another only with virtualmicroscopes, among others. They can also create SedLMSactivities with, for each activity, sediment samples collectedfrom a specific place or environment. When creating a newSedLMS activity, the teacher has to introduce a name and adescription. After this, the teacher is redirected to a web pagewith the possibility of adding new contents.

e) Create a SedLMS activity: The SedLMS activity al-lows the creation and edition of Sedimentology contents intoMoodle (SedLMS activities). These contents are based on theexisting sample contents: teachers can select partial/total con-tents of existing samples and they can attach a description tothese contents. Then, these contents are presented to studentsfor learning purposes. With this type of activity, teachers canalso organize the existing samples according to a specificparameter (for example: the environment where the sampleis collected).

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Teachers can create SedLMS activities, which is donesimilarly to the other Moodle’s modules, like quizzes andlessons.

f) Define quizzes: Using the tools previously described,it is possible to create quizzes with questions related toSedimentology. Thus, three types of questions (Draw plot,Sedimentology markers and Sedimentology multiple choice)related to Sedimentology are developed, with several variantswhich are following described.

Questions of Draw plot type can be used to evaluate theknowledge of the students relatively to granulometry (relativeand cumulative frequencies of sediments by grain size). Thesequestions allow the students to draw a plot of relative and/orcumulative frequencies. For example, the teacher can choosesample photos or textual descriptions in which a student hasto draw a plot corresponding to the requirements stated in thequestion text. To add a new question of this type, a teachermust give a question text, and choose a default mark and ageneral feedback to the question. Moreover, the teacher mustchoose the type of plot that students have to draw (relative orcumulative frequencies plot). These questions can be done justfor practice of the students, in which the teacher provides anexample of possible answer that can be shown to the studentsafter the conclusion of the exercise, or in evaluation mode,which must be corrected manually by the teacher.

The second type of question (Sedimentology markers) isbased on the introduction of markers on a virtual microscope.In this type of question, the teacher can define who adds themarkers on the map, that can be the teacher himself or thestudent (two variants). Teachers define also the sample thatis used. This type of question is useful for questions wherethe student has to describe certain sediments on a sample’sphoto according to their sedimentological characteristics orthe student has to add markers on the virtual microscope tohighlight sands that have certain characteristics specified bythe teacher in the question statement.

Finally, Sedimentology multiple choice question type can beused to evaluate knowledge involved in the previous questiontypes: identification and classification of sediment sampleswith certain sedimentological characteristics, and granulom-etry. To add a new question of this type, a teacher may givea question text, choose a default mark to the question and ageneral feedback like in the other questions. Moreover, theteacher must choose the type of question (variant), relatedto the type of answer that the students must choose inthese multiple choice questions (simple answer, markers, plotsor points in ternary diagrams), and a sample (like in theSedimentology markers questions) that is used on the virtualmicroscope.

g) Solve quizzes: First of all, while answering to Drawplot questions related to plots of relative and cumulativefrequencies, there are a select and an input box elements. In theselect element, a student can choose a φ (phi) value, related toa dimensional interval of grains size and in the input box thestudent must introduce a decimal value (from 0 to 100%) and,finally, a click on a button introduces this new value to the plot.Plot is rebuilt as a student introduces new values, clicking onthe “Add Point” button. Moreover, in their response, students

can text some lines to justify the plot they draw (Figure 4).

Fig. 4. Response to a question of Draw plot type.

Another variant of this question type is related to ternarydiagrams. In these cases, the student marks points on a ternarydiagram through an interface, like it is shown in the Figure5 with red lettered circles. The students must mark pointsthrough clicks on the ternary diagram (red circle with theletter C). These points can have different colors: red, green,blue, yellow or black (red circle with the letter A). Moreover,students can clean all the points introduced on the ternarydiagram (red circle with the letter B) and, in their response(circle with the letter D), students can text some lines to justifythe plot they draw.

Fig. 5. Interface presented to the students in Draw plot questions (ternarydiagrams - image cropped for readability reasons).

In the second question type (Sedimentology markers), theinterface presented to the students is shown in the Figure 6,which is composed by a virtual microscope and other featureswhich are described previously. The student must answer inthe blank space which type of sediments are those which weremarked by the teacher or the student has to mark sedimentswith certain characteristics proposed by the teacher.

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Fig. 6. Response to a question of Sedimentology marker type.

Finally, in relation to the interface presented to students inSedimentology multiple choice questions, a virtual microscopecan be used, containing a sample photo and some utilitieswhich can be also used in the samples, like a custom cursorand a scale ruler.

In the case that the choices are markers, these markers areidentified on the virtual microscope (Figure 7). Otherwise (inthe cases that the choices are simple text or plots), the use ofa virtual microscope is optional.

Fig. 7. Sedimentology multiple choice with markers as answers.

2) User validation: In order to evaluate our system, weasked people related to Geology to experiment some ques-tions developed with our system, and to give their opinionsregarding the usability, potentiality and innovation of thesystem (evaluation component). In these questions, the main

features developed in the SedLMS system, related to virtualmicroscopes, ternary diagrams and histograms are tested. Wehad the contribute of five specialists in Geology that testeda quiz with questions developed with the SedLMS system.From their responses, we conclude that probably some ofthe specialists have reluctance to see e-learning substitut-ing/changing the traditional teaching of Sedimentology, butthey have no doubts that e-learning solutions would be a greatcomplement to traditional teaching. In general terms, theythink that the virtual microscope is the most innovative andmotivating feature, besides being useful in the identificationof sediments and determination of grain sizes. Furthermore,almost all the interviewed specialists consider that this featureis really helpful for the study of rare samples. In relation toternary diagrams, the specialists think that it is an innovatingand motivating tool.

Finally, when asked about global questions of the system,almost all consider that the SedLMS system is easily used, itis advantageous in Sedimentology learning and evaluation andit has great potential to be successful.

IV. CONCLUSION

The work described in this thesis consists in the creationof a system composed by a plugin and extended questiontypes to work in the Moodle platform, which allow the displayof contents (learning component) and evaluation in topicsrelated to Sedimentology in schools (evaluation component),using concepts that have been implemented successfully inother areas, such as virtual microscopy and e-learning. Themain result is the virtualization of laboratory practices inSedimentology subjects. This system improves Sedimentologyteaching and it allows teachers to deliver new content andmake complete tests.

The tests and exams used in the conventional teachingof Sedimentology rely on complex and expensive laboratoryequipment (binocular microscopes and sediment samples) andpaper material. In addition, conventional laboratory sessionsdo not allow for ubiquity, that is, these cannot be accessedany time and anywhere. Some tools created in this workallow to simulate topics related to Sedimentology and caneliminate/complement real sediment samples through the useof virtual microscopy concept and virtual samples. Thesevirtual samples are composed by photos, descriptions and otherdata, and the teachers can create markers on sample photos tohighlight sediments with specific characteristics.

Although the virtual microscope is not equal to the realbinocular microscopes and the virtual samples are not equalto real sediment samples, our system has the advantage ofallowing a more precise and complete evaluation: samplesare well defined (with photos and markers highlighting somesediments) and, this way, it is possible to evaluate moreconcepts.

Unfortunately, there was no time to test this system withGeology students to measure how this system can be effectiveand an alternative to conventional teaching. The system wasonly tested with Geology specialists. However, this systemfollows the standards of Moodle relatively to the SedLMS

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activity and the developed question types. Furthermore, theconcepts used in this thesis (such as e-learning and the virtualmicroscope) were implemented successfully in other areas.

The modules developed in this thesis can be seen as abackground, composed by a learning component in whichthe sediment samples are well defined (with photos, descrip-tions and others) and an evaluation component (with severalquestion types exclusively dedicated to Sedimentology), fromwhich it would be possible to easily develop additional featuresand extend the existing ones.

A. Future work

In the future, in order to increase the detail of zoom, it wouldbe interesting if more images were used in the constructionof virtual microscopes instead of static images. The Leafletlibrary has support for the use of pyramidal tiles, which iswidely used in other areas, namely cytology and medicine.With this solution, the virtual microscope would be moresimilar to the real binocular microscopes. Moreover, a camerawith a Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machine [23]must be used, which allows a more precise movement of thecamera (in the x, y and z axis) to take pictures in severalzooms automatically. Moreover, the photos imported to thesystem can have higher quality in order to improve the userexperience. The main goal in the development of the SedLMSmodules was the achievement of the functionalities. However,the User Interface should also be taken into consideration. Inthe future, some improvements can be done in order to providea more beautiful interface to the users.

Other methods can be used to import samples: an integrationwith an external database should be great. It can also bestudied the possibility of adding some interactivity betweenstudents in the SedLMS activities. For example, the markers onsamples’ photos are only introduced by teachers in this thesis.However, it can be well accepted if the students also intro-duced markers on samples photos (in the learning component)to promote interactivity between students, with discussionabout sediments contained on samples photos, among others(gamification concept).

Moreover, the addition of more didactic contents in samplesand SedLMS activities or the extension of existing oneswould be great. Additional types of contents explored inSedimentology, in particular, and in Geology, in general, canbe used.

Furthermore, these modules can be improved through testswith Geology students, which can show us the effectivenessof the modules.

In addition, it is possible to develop more question typesassociated with Sedimentology by extending the questiontypes already existent in the Moodle platform.

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