A model for the creation of online courseware

This paper describes a project underway at the University of Mississippi to create a Virtual Campus using the Internet and VRML to present laboratories. The initial laboratories were written by a community college biology instructor and translated into CGI scripts by a group of computer science students at the University.The purpose of the project is to utilize the wealth of NASA Earth Observation data in Mississippi Community College Classrooms to improve the quality of science education students receive while also increasing their interest in science. The model for lesson creation allows the teacher to create lesson descriptions that are then translated into scripts to run inside the VRML campus.