Pieter Vermeesch receives teaching award
Dr Pieter Vermeesch has won a BETA for his work in creating an interactive website that simulates the experience of looking down a petrographic microscope.
Dr Pieter Vermeesch has won a Birkbeck Excellence in Teaching Award (BETA) for his work in creating an interactive website that simulates the experience of looking down a petrographic microscope, and enables concepts to be discussed and explored which would be impossible to convey to distance learners by any other means.
Helping our distance learners
The Geology programme at Birkbeck is the only such course in the UK offering a BSc degree accredited by the Geological Society via distance learning, with around half of all students choosing to study in this way.
Students rely heavily on the internet for their learning experience. Theoretical concepts can be explained using PDF documents and video streaming, but the practical side of the course, which involves such activities as identifying minerals and rocks under the petrographic microscope, and observing optical phenomena such as pleochroism (in which mineral grains in a rock appear to be different colours when observed at different angles under the microscope) presents a greater challenge.
The site uses a hyperlinked structure, which mimics the non-linear thought processes required for good rock description, and enables students to navigate quickly between different sections of the site.
Pieter was presented with his BETA award at the Birkbeck graduation ceremony, on 10 November 2011.
Issued: 12 November 2011