Ripples. Five years of Flexible Learning at the University of Oslo

Computers in Science Education
A new way to teach science?

Morten Hjorth-Jensen, Knut Mørken, Annik Myhre and Hanne Sølna

Summary

In the last decades we have witnessed an incredible development of both computer hardware and software. Scientific problems that were previously solved on large special-purpose machines with special-purpose software can now be easily handled in general-purpose, interactive environments on standard PCs with the bonus of immediate visualization of the results.

A fundamental challenge to our undergraduate programmes is how to incorporate and exploit efficiently these advances within the standard curriculum in mathematics and the natural sciences, without detracting the attention from the classical topics. This brings with it the major organizational challenge of how to get university professors in a variety of different fields and departments to work together towards such a reform. Furthermore, if students are trained to use such tools from the earliest stages in their education, do such tools really enhance and improve the learning environment? In additionAnd, perhaps even more importantly, does it lead to better understanding and insight?

It is too early to attempt to answer these questions, but here we present one possible approach to the reform: Computational topics are gradually introduced in the undergraduate curriculum in several bachelor of science programmes at the University of Oslo, as an integral supplement to the classical scientific syllabus.

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