Workshop Follow-up Summary

Background Information

Total Number of Participants: 71 (including Unidata and COMET staff)
Number of Participants Contacted: about 65 (with 2 bounced e-mails returned)
Number of Speakers: 15
Number of "Participants" in Lab sessions: 47
Number of Responses to Follow-up Questionnaire: 26

Summary of Quantifiable Responses

Q: Did the workshop change how you used the Web in your teaching?

Yes: 16
No: 5
No Answer: 2

Q: Over the past year did you: Create any Web-based materials for classroom use?

Yes: 18
No: 3
No Answer: 1

Q: Over the past year did you: Use any of the teaching techniques discussed during the Presentations? Lab sessions?

Yes: 13
No: 5
No Answer: 4

Note: There were many comments about the lack of time to implement Web ideas and about the inapplicability of pedagogical information to the courses taught. One respondent attended simply to learn how to use McIDAS software.

Summary of Non-Quantifiable Responses

Sites mentioned as being particularly useful:

• UNIDATA 1997 Summer Workshop (how to write Web pages for teaching)
• SSEC
• U of Wisconsin (2)
• Weather underground,
• U of Michigan
• The Daily Planet (2)
• U of Illinois
• WXP
• Purdue University (2)
• NESDIS
• Colo. State
• CIRES URL (Jim Purdom)
• SPC
• some NSSL web sites
• DMSP archives
• URI NOAA-AVHRR archives
• Texas A&M
• Unidata Workshop Site
• Wadsworth

List of URLs created by participants as a result of workshop:

• http://www.louisville.edu/~mnfren01/courses/hydraulics/ (under development)
• http://aerial.evsc.virginia.edu/~jlm8h/class/evsc494.html
• http://vms.cc.wmich.edu/~cutrim (comments solicited by author)
• http://www.eas.slu.edu/Comet
• http://ouucgis.ou.edu/
• http://meso.eas.purdue.edu/~gpetty/atms545.html (logistical supplement for a course); not for dissemination
• http://meso.eas.purdue.edu/atms630.html (list of URLs to support a course); not for dissemination
• http://www2.wku.edu/www/geoweb/metcrse/geog121.htm
• http://www2.ncsu.edu/classes/mea444-sekoch/ (Coupled Jet-Front Circulation Systems)
• Structure and Detection of Cold Fronts Aloft http://www4.ncsu.edu/~jlmoore3/CFA_Tutorial.htm
• Identifying Mesocyclones using the WSR-88D Radar http://www4.ncsu.edu/eos/users/c/cvander/pub/mesotalk_nws.html (currently empty)
• Prediction and Analysis of Gravity Waves http://www.nws.noaa.gov/er/akq/GWave2/htm
• http://geog.ucfv.bc.ca/okabe/weather.html
• http://www.comet.ucar.edu/nsflab
• http://www.atmos.albany.edu/das/classes/atm450/index.html ; not for dissemination

Topics cited for future workshops:

• Designing brief course projects or a specific assignment for a course. . . There needs to be a way to show the students the difference between seeing an image series loop from satellite, and extracting quantitative data from the image
• Research applications of satellite data using Unidata Supported Systems
• In-depth instruction on design and building Web sites
• Grading, quiz and test options using the Web
• Human dimensions on Global Change
• Tying GOES satellite data derived products with Landsat data products using GIS (e.g. look at the effect of land cover and land use change on clouds).
• Designing for/teaching/using Internet technologies in broad earth-science courses (4)
• Workshop for faculty from small institutions where we can attend to see the best of computer simulations that can be obtained, explore the potentialities and practicalities of using McIDAS or other similar programs, receive suggestions about recommended URLs, learn about case studies that may be available or are in the development stage, and get the latest information about recent advances in the field of meteorology.
• Creating classroom activities based on web resources
• Applications of NEXRAD data and integration of data from different sources using advanced software packages.
• "Case studies" of people who are on the firing line trying out the new technologies. By "case studies" I don't mean meteorological case studies but the experiences of the people.
• Satellite data -- characteristics, applications, and resources relevant to various "major" satellite sensors and data types, used in meteorology, and how up-to-date information on these rapidly changing technologies could be efficiently collected, summarized and incorporated into undergraduate courses for meteorology majors.
• Forecasting techniques
• Sharing ideas on student/course interface designs
• Preparing specific activities for classroom use.
• The use of Unidata software and WSR-88D radar data in University classrooms
• Using Unidata software for the generation of web based course material
• Using sounder data or mesoscale models.
• Radar data and atmospheric modeling.
• Session on "What is Truth?" -- how data is viewed through lens of research interest

Broad themes:

• Most use web for course management
• Most want more interactive course activities, but don't have time/know-how to create them
• Several want help with broad courses for non-meteorologists (Earth Sciences)
• Most would welcome access to already-prepared exercises (created by others in the community and by organizations like COMET)
• Keeping up with the science and keeping up with evolving technologies is hard. Help is needed on both fronts.