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Reporting Results: The EdGCM eJournal

A unique feature of EdGCM is eJournal, a tool that allows students to create reports discussing the results of their experiments. eJournals can incorporate both text and images, and provides a format that encourages students to construct “manuscripts” in a style similar to that of researchers publishing their findings in scientific journals or on the web.

An individual eJournal report may contain up to 20 text and image sections. Sections may be added or rearranged at any time while the report is being written. Converting between text and image sections is simple; just click on one of the buttons to the left of the section (clicking on a photo button sets up the section for figures; clicking on a text button sets up the section for text).

Images can be inserted by cutting and pasting (or dragging and dropping) from the associated EdGCM Image Browser into an eJournal image section. Three additional figures may be added to a given section (for a total of four figures) by clicking the “+” button at the lower right corner of the figure window. Text information about the image is transferred to the report as a figure caption, but figure captions are also editable so that students can point out specific information pertinent to their analyses.

The Image Browser is a library of photos, graphs, and maps that can be used to illustrate key points for discussion in a student’s eJournal report. The images may be sorted by name, date created or modified, or by theme (e.g., global warming images), and can be set to display images in gallery or list form. To page through multiple pages of the Image Browser, click on the “forward” and “reverse” buttons at the top of the Image Browser window. Any user may add images to the Image Browser.

eJournal reports are stored in the eJournal Library (Figure 3-20). They can also be linked to individual experiments in the Simulation Library database, to establish a relationship between simulations and their analyses. The database then keeps track of situations where many students are analyzing and reporting on one experiment, as well as one student analyzing and reporting on many experiments. As with the Simulation Library, permissions can be set for access to individual eJournals.

When an eJournal report is complete, it is easily converted to HTML format through controls in the toolbar (Figure 3-21). The Preview for Web button generates an HTML file (Figure 3-22) that opens automatically in a new window within your default web browser. After the report is checked for accuracy and completeness, clicking on the Export for Web button opens a window so that the HTML file can be saved directly to a web site directory. The report can easily be published to a school web site or to the student’s own web space for public access.