Choice and Implementation of Software for the Online Teaching of Geostatistics

Abstract

At Edith Cowan University we offer the course Postgraduate Certificate in Geostatistics. This consists of the three one-semester long units Introduction to Geostatistics, Geostatistical Methods and Modelling and Simulation. The first unit, for which there is also an undergraduate version, provides an introduction to spatial descriptive statistics, variography for modelling spatial continuity and the geostatistical estimation methods of simple and ordinary kriging. The second and third units are in-depth explorations of geostatistical estimation and simulation techniques respectively. All three units make extensive use of technology. The majority of the students enrolled in the postgraduate course live outside Perth, many working for mining or petroleum companies. Such students are unable to come to on-campus sessions and are also unable to use the laboratory-based computer software packages for which the University has an on-site licence. Even some of the locally based undergraduate students in the first unit are unable to attend the on-campus sessions due to part-time work commitments. We therefore need to use software that we can reasonably expect the students to have or which is available at low cost or, preferably, as public domain software. In addition, we want geostatistical estimation programs which we can customise and we also have the desire for the students to use software in a way that is transparent and not simply as a ?lack-box? Further, the packages must be relatively simple to use and, since we make the course materials available online, it is necessary for us to select software packages that can be readily communicated to the students. In this paper we discuss our specific software requirements, the software choices we have made and, in context, the advantages and disadvantages of the implementation of these decisions and the implications for the future offerings of these units.