David J. Jeffery
2005 January 1
I believe the web lectures satisfactorially achieve their aims. Of course, good text books will often provide more detail and maybe consistently more accurate. Also some people prefer having a text that one can hold in one's hand and make notes on.
As a lecturing tool the lectures work well for me. The lectures are projected directly onto a big screen and the lecturer scrolls through them. The images and text and voice can be integrated. I find that students adjust quickly to not taking notes in class and in not be able to read every word. In lecturing I focus on images, key words, and questions to the class (which are inserted in the text).
Occasionally, a diagram or math expression needs to be improvised on a blackboard or whiteboard. One could also use transparencies and the with the projector set to blank screen.
The questions to class are usually multiple choice. Hitherto, I've just used a show of hands to get responses. One could have the student use remotes in order to collect answers. That takes more technology than I've currently got available to me. Some questions are intended to elicit a response from an individual student in words.
The lectures are still under construction. They are probably about 80 % complete for the solar system and about 60 % complete for extrasolar astronomy: many lectures need further improvement. In fact, be warned: some material is probably out-of-date, erroneous, and/or garbled. I am working to ameliorate things.
In addition to the lectures, I have created a problem bank, Introductory Astronomy Problems, in TeX format. The problems are all multiple choice. A pdf file of the problems, but not solutions, is downloadable. I will provide instructors with the TeX source file (which includes solutions) on request. The questions are all coded for electronic selection. I can provide a fortran routine for selection, but an instructor could easily construct his/her own program.
I also have web encyclopedia site Astronomy, Physics, Science, Technology containing further images, descriptions, and links useful to an astronomy course. This site is very incomplete and unperfected.
Alien mesmerized by copyright.
Many images are included in the lectures. The main sources for images that are not of my own creation are NASA, the National Optical Astrophysical Observatories (NOAO), the National Oceanographics and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). I have also used architectural images from the Digital Imaging Project of Mary Ann Sullivan, Bluffton College and maps from the Perry-Casta~neda Library Map Collection, University of Texas Austin. All of these sources allow use of their images with proper credit without express permission at least for educational purposes: most of the NASA, NOAA, and USGS images are public domain I believe. There are a few images from other sources. In almost all cases, I believe that I am free to use those images and have given proper credit and a download site.
There are a few astronomical images that I downloaded years ago and have lost track of their provenance. Since I am using those images for educational purposes, I trust the copyright holders will be forgiving. I intend to replace those unprovenanced images when I can find adequate substitutes with proper provenance.
If anyone finds that I am improperly using an image, please contact me and I will resolve the matter.
In regard to my own text and images (all signed DJ Jeffery), I hereby give permission for downloading, use, and modification for any non-commercial or educational purposes. Express permission is not required. I will provide a tar file of everything on request. I'd appreciate credit and hearing from any users.
I thank the UNLV Department of Physics and Washburn University Department of Physics and Astronomy for support for this work.