Assessing Student Learning Outcomes with Tablet PCs by folks from Vassar.
Used HP field-ready tablets with USB GPS devices as a mobile mapping lab. I was glad to hear that they were fairly low specced at 512mb of RAM, but were still ArchGIS just fine.
For one example they had an historic aerial photo of the path of a stream. Students then walked the current path of the stream, geo-referencing with the GPS enabled tablet as they went. This mapped the current path which they could then compare to the historic photo to see how the stream’s path had changed. The tablet allowed them to add ArchGIS data and make notes on aerial views of the stream as they were there.
Also used by an Ecology class. Prof gave the students a field guide that they put on the tablets. Used software called Photogrid. Students took photos of 1m x 1m plots. The software randomly scatter-plots points on the photo. Students identify what is pointed out on the tablet.
Initially they weren’t doing assessment, but found that it needed to be there to get articles on the project published and to obtain continuation funds. They modified a Penn St. survey with permission. The survey at the start of the class focused on confidence and skills questions regarding technology and maps. Also asked some qualitative questions on role of technology in the discipline area and anticipated support needs. The post-test was similar adding a couple of end-of-semester satisfaction questions.
More on their blog at http://gisatvassar.blogspot.com