ELOISE guidelines for students and lecturers

User guidelines for students and lecturers

There is much to be gained by being able to relate basic themes and theories learnt in the classroom to the real world. As knowledge advances faster each year, students are required to be more quickly aware of current developments. This website reports current EU funded research results in a form which is accessible for those in education. Lecturers will find much relevant material here in a form which they can readily use in lectures and tutorials while students may find this introductory material about current research suitable for background reading for essays as well as a source of ideas for future research projects.

Appropriate subjects

This material will be of interest to those studying or teaching coastal environments and systems from all perspectives including biological, chemical, environmental and physical sciences (such as civil engineering) as well as geography and coastal management. It is aimed at final year students or masters level work although others may find it of value with appropriate supporting reading.

The organisation

There are three levels of information for each of the four general topics (see diagram below). Firstly, there are

executive summaries which describe the key features of the research carried out in each topic area. Secondly, there are the full syntheses, documents which describe what the different projects in each area studied and how their findings were of relevance to developing our understanding coastal systems. These syntheses are broken up into short sections through which it is easy to navigate. We have also compiled relevant figures and tables from these documents into outline powerpoint presentations. In association with each of these syntheses there are case studies which explore examples in more detail. Thirdly, there are hyperlinks to the project websites and references published in the literature where the most detailed information about the studies can be found.

Executive Summary

Synthesis of Results

Case Studies

How this material may be used by lecturers and teachers

The material has been arranged to try to make its use as a teaching tool as simple as possible. It has purposely not been desgined as a complete module as it was felt this would restrict its use and be less flexible, and so we hope you will be able to abstract chunks of material of use to you from the site. A useful starting point in each subject area is probably the skeleton powerpoint presentation. These are based around the text in the synthesis and we imagine that most lecturers will wish to supplement these presentations with additional material based on their knowledge of their students’ background and what they wish them to gain from their course.

The case studies could be set as exercises for self directed learning or taught in the classroom. For each of these we have included links to the key references which are electronically available as either an abstract or in full text form. For a tutorial, the case study may be taken as the basis and students could be asked to read one of the key references. In the tutorial class they could be asked to summarise what they had read and then there could be a discussion about how such a project could be applied locally e.g. could this model be applied to our local river catchment and how would that differ or does a problem similar to that discussed occur around the coastline in your country?

Of course lecturers are at liberty to use this material however they choose within the limits of copyright and while some may ask their students to read all of the synthesis documents, others may select only one or two diagrams to support their lecture material. Please acknowledge ELOISE for all information used. As far as we know there will not be a problem with regard to copyright as long as this information is only used in education. Care must be taken to ensure the copyright laws are not infringed when using the journal links.

How students may find this useful

The scientific literature on any topic can seem a vast and frightening resource. There is so much material out there, often written in a complex style and using very technical language, it is very difficult to know where to start. This website is designed to try to help you through that maze by providing an introductory text to current coastal research in the EU, which links directly to the scientific paper of relevance to the subject you are reading about it. There are also case studies which consider in more depth particular topics and again refer you to the most appropriate scientific literature. A complete list of all the projects can be found in the ELOISE Projects table. Please note that only those projects highlighted in blue have their own website. If you require more information about those projects that do not have a website, please refer to the main ELOISE website for a more detailed description and list of references.

If you have an essay to write or project to undertake we suggest you start by looking at the Titles and Summaries for the four topic areas on which this website focuses. If you see that the topic of interest to you will be included in one of the themed overviews, then continue and read that too. Each of the themed overviews is available on line or as a PDF file – select whichever suits your approach to learning. The PDF files contain no more that 40 pages. As you go through the web pages you will see that many words are highlighted in red – these link to a glossary in which an explanation of technical terms can be found. You will also see that many of the references can be highlighted and if you click on these you will be taken to the scientific literature where either the abstract or the full text of the paper is available. As you read through the themed overview, identify the papers which will be of most relevance to your work which you can use for further reading.

For each topic there are also case studies. These are examples of how the research has been applied in a particular project or country. These will hopefully enable you to understand how the results can be applied in real world coastal management. These will be easier to understand if you have already read the full synthesis. If you find the information of special interest we suggest you read the scientific articles which relate directly to the topic of the case study (these are highlighted in the text).

Important - Copyright Issues

Copyright is a type of intellectual property and, like physical property, cannot generally be used without the owner’s permission. Material on websites is protected by copyright in the same way as material in other media. Many people think that because something is on the Web it must be in the public domain. This is not so. A work is in the public domain only if it is explicitly stated to be so.

Remember that this material results from the hard work of the scientists funded by the EU and many other organisations. They have intellectual copyright and you must not copy any of this information to pass off as your own work. Plagiarism is a serious offence and in many Universities and colleges can lead to expulsion. You can take quotes from this text if you then include it within quote marks (“ ”) and credit this website and the author of the section as the source. Alternatively, you can rewrite the information in your own words giving this site or the papers as the source. Since your work is educational and for use in a teaching and learning environment, it will be acceptable for you to copy the diagrams, tables and other figures for use in your report ONLY if you acknowledge the sources as the relevant website or paper.

You must also be aware of copyright laws in your country which will prevent you from copying text or reproducing too much of any one article or report. This is likely to be relevant if you wish to download material from some of the published scientific papers to which the website links.

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Nutrient Dynamics