The purpose of this project is to develop web-based interactive landform simulation model that can be accessed anytime and anywhere via a standard web browser to improve undergraduate students' learning experience of landform evolution. A secondary purpose is to increase the participation and success of women, underrepresented minorities, and persons with disabilities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines.You will be asked to test the website and complete a pre-test, post-test, and user survey to help us measure the effectiveness of the software in achieving its goals and make it more suitable and efficient for students' learning in the future. Participating in this project will have no risk to you. It will only help you learn more and better about landform evolution by visually explore different scenarios.

The pre-test and post-test questions will be multiple choice questions and the user survey will contain some multiple choice questions and some open ended questions. All of these will be conducted anonymously. Going through the website will take about 1.5 hours and the questions should take about 15 minutes to complete.

All of the information obtained from your participation will be kept confidential. Your consent form will be kept separate from the data and the data will not be available to anyone other than the project development team for improving the website.

You are reminded that your participation is voluntary. This means that you can choose to stop at any time without penalty.

If you have any questions or concerns related to your participation in this study, please contact Wei Luo, Department of Geography, (815)753-6828, luo@geog.niu.edu. Any questions about your rights as a research participant can be addressed to the NIU Office of Research Compliance (815-753-8588).


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