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INTERACTIVE LEARNING MODULE ON SPATIAL VISUALISATION OF 
STATISTICAL DATA 
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Ralf Bill and Dipl.-Ing. Marco Lydo Zehner 
Rostock University, Institute for Geodesy and Geoinformatics, D 18051 Rostock, 
{ralf.bill,marco.zehner}@auf.uni-rostock.de 
PS WG VI/2-4-1 Computer Assisted Teaching; Internet Resources 
and Distance Learning 
KEY WORDS: Spatial Information Sciences, Statistics, Education, Mapping, Learning, Multimedia 
ABSTRACT: 
Education on basic statistics belongs to the core curricula in various disciplines. The following article introduces the research project 
"Norddeutscher Methodenlehre-Baukasten" dealing with statistical methods in an E-learning environment for students in 
psychology, sociology, medicine, educational and economic sciences, and others. 
The target of this research project is to develop E-Learning modules on basic statistics. Within this broad range a specific module 
was designed for the spatial visualisation of administrative statistical data. The didactical concept, which will be described in the 
paper, is based on explorative learning, a method, where the student tries to develop own hypotheses and evaluates them 
interactively. Starting with a motivating introduction on the research context the student gets the chance to extend his naive concepts 
and hypotheses within a search room related to the learning target. By interactive exercises he is improving his own scientific 
concepts step by step. 
The intention of the specific learning unit is to teach the student in using spatial thematic visualisation methods to illustrate 
statistical data. Especially for the exploration of spatial patterns, graphical visualisation techniques have major advantages. The 
example used is dedicated to administrative statistics on population in Germany. Statistical data on population are related to different 
administrative borders in a hierarchy from municipality to the state level. Normally a student is going to calculate statistic measures 
such as extreme values, average, standard deviation etc. to characterize the data sets. He will learn to differentiate between absolute 
and relative measurements and between time dependent and time independent data. Different cartographic visualisation techniques 
are offered. By trial-and-error he will recognize which visualisation technique fits to which data sets. The aggregation along the 
administrative hierarchy leads to new knowledge, the problems with the visualisation at certain levels are introduced. 
The paper describes a typical session which lasts for around 1.5 lecture hours. First, but very promising, experiences with the 
evaluation of this learning unit within the lectures on Geoinformatics will be presented. 
The technical solution is realised mainly using open source software such as MySQL database, SVG and Java geotools. 
I. INTRODUCTION The Methodenlehre-Baukasten (toolkit of methodological 
education) is a modular learning-teaching program for the main 
topics of methodic teachings and statistics. 
From its requirement profile and its examples, exercises and 
texts the MLBK targets on studying courses in psychology, 
sociology, medicine, educating science and economic science. 
At the same time the MLBK offers teaching support when 
planning and executing training meetings in different teach- 
learn-settings, both in the operational readiness level and in the 
virtual teachings. 
1.1 The research project “Norddeutscher Methodenlehre- 
Baukasten” 
The multi-disciplinary project ,,Norddeutscher Methodenlehre- 
Baukasten“ (abbreviated MLBK) is a cooperation of some north 
Germans universities, funded by the Federal Ministry for 
education and research (BMBF) in Germany, which promoted 
in 2000 an initiative on new media in education at universities 
and colleges. Partners in this project are: 
- University of Bremen with the disciplines mathematics, 
computer science, sociology and psychology, 
- University of Hamburg with the disciplines education 
didactics (principal investigator Professor Schulmeister), 
medicine, psychology and computer science, 
- University of Greifswald with the discipline psychology as 
well as 
- the University of Rostock with the disciplines computer 
Science, medicine, economics, social sciences, geodesy, and 
geoinformatics. 
The part of the Institute for Geodesy and Geoinformatics is the 
development of the learning module for the spatial visualization 
of statistic data. 
The MLBK offers methods and models for learning how to set 
up descriptions for real world phenomena, how to acquire data 
and how to evaluate these data sets including statistical 
methods. 
The modular structure makes it possible for teachers and the 
students to vary content, examples and exercises at any time 
related to amount and purpose of the session. A continuous 
application and example reference should motivate the scholars 
to constitute an own meaning and to link to own background 
knowledge in the education field statistics. 
Being based on the concept of explorative learning (Bruner, 
1961, Neber, 1975), the teaching program offers the possibility 
to the scholars to work with basic research data in the context of 
specialized entrances to current scientific questions. This should 
improve their understanding of the statistics and method