New Perspectives in Science Education

Laboratory higher education should not be merely reduced to the experimental work carried out. Furthermore, critical evaluation and assessment of the obtained data and, thereby, on the implemented measurement procedures represents a very relevant part of the learning process in laboratory courses. Typically, to foster this reflection process laboratory reports and protocols are requested so that a deeper understanding and assessment of the obtained data is performed. Such written assignments are usually carried out individually or by reduced groups of students. Being often long and comprehensive, they are more focused on the individual evaluation of one's own experimental experience, than on sharing the results of such evaluation with other students.

Often enough results from a particular experiment are very similar for different students groups, and so are measurement errors and mistakes in their measurement procedures. Sharing results and expectations for a given experiment in a transparent way with one another may help identifying sources of error more easily. But above all it may help sharing their knowledge and the insight they gained from the experiments, thereby facilitating the achievement of a more complete assessment and set of conclusions obtained.

To foster such a participation process in the evaluation of their own and other groups’ results, the Introductory Laboratory of the Postgraduate Program Renewable Energy and European Master in Renewable Energy at the University of Oldenburg which usually consisted of theoretical lectures, laboratory days and evaluation sessions was extended in autumn 2015 by a “seminar blog”. The so called Seminar Blog is a WordPress based collective e-portfolio concept, which makes it possible to depict rising questions, steps and results of a research process. Collective-shared representations function as a gateway for discussions and feedback-activities. The dynamically mapping and representation of the research and learning process open ways of prompt and ‘timely’ communication about questions and uncertainties. In this paper results from the implementation of the “Seminar Blog” as an online tool for enabling the direct and transparent share of experimental results are discussed.