AN OPEN-SOURCE LEARNING PLATFORM APPLIED TO LEARN EARTH SCIENCES

Since its immersion in the HEA (Higher Education Area), both the University and the Secondary School in Europe have started with the introduction of the IT (Information Technology) in the learning process. In this way students can access to the knowledge (notes, exercises and material) explained in class sessions asynchronously without requiring spatial simultaneity between teacher and student. Also, they would be able to access to other resources that complement that new information and offer the chance to apply those new concepts.

So far, the accessible sources are the open-source learning platforms, where the teacher can add the information provided in form of documents (notes, videos and supplementary data). Regarding to Earth Sciences, particularly in the study of petrology and mineralogy, practice sessions are not long enough for all the student to fully understand the concepts and some of them leaved the session without identifying the minerals and rocks. The lack of time for each student to study the visual recognition of minerals and rocks in the practical sessions makes a lot of students of geology degrees fail exams. The Tuning project identifies the recognition of minerals and rocks as a specific competence of graduates in the Degree of Geology and Degree of Engineering related to Earth Sciences. This indicates that a virtual tool allowing students view photos and explanations of minerals and rocks shown in class, is needed, because the students could practice all the times that they want and need.

In this paper an interactive video game created by means of the free software is performed. This program is hosted in an open-source learning platform. The student can used this video game consolidating the new concepts in a pleasant way. Finally, the results of an inquiry among professionals and students are provided, showing that students qualify this tools as very useful and the professional indicate that they would like to have one tool like this in their university time to learn these kind of subjects in the easy way.