Teaching Oceanography Using Ocean Data View Software

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to improve students understanding of introductory oceanography with the aid of a computer program. The software that we used is Ocean Data View, abbreviated as ODV, which is proprietary yet freely available software for the analysis and visualization of oceanographic and meteorological data sets. This study used the quasi-experimental method with one group pre-test and post-test design. A group consists of 30 undergraduate students of marine science study-program at University of Bengkulu was involved in this study. An open-ended question and questionnaire were used to collect data on students understanding on salinity, temperature, density and nutrients profiles in seawater. The results of the study show that students’ understanding of the introductory chemical and physical oceanography was improved significantly. Before using the ODV software, only 73.3% of total students answer the question correctly and it increased to 93.3% after the treatment. Moreover, before a thorough discussion of the ODV software, only 79.3% of students strongly agree that the software is easy to use and help them learning oceanography easier, that increased significantly to 92.7%. Therefore, we concluded that the visualization of seawater properties and nutrients distribution through ODV computer software is useful to assist students understanding of introductory oceanography class. Keywords—oceanography; Ocean Data View; learning outcomes; software