Application of Innovative Digital and Hybrid Tools in Geosciences and Mining Education

Abstract

In the second decade of the 21st century, mining, especially coal, began to be perceived as an activity that negatively contributes to climate change, including global warming. This has caused the world to turn towards alternative energy sources, i.e. wind, solar, hydro or biomass energy. The European Union in particular has placed great emphasis on this aspect, which has resulted in mining, often unfairly, being perceived as something undesirable. As a result, educational mining faculties, including in Poland, are struggling with fewer and fewer potential pupils and students every year. The aim of the HoloGEM project, which is carried out in an international Polish-Turkish-Portuguese group, is to reverse this trend and make the recipients aware that mining is necessary to obtain all raw materials, without which it is impossible to produce many specialized equipment. However, in order to do this, it is also necessary to use modern, attractive forms of teaching. The HoloGEM project developed an innovative curriculum for educating the fundamentals of mining, covering issues in geology, underground mining, open-pit mining, mineral processing, and occupational health and safety. In addition to traditional content, in line with teaching guidelines in this area, VR materials, presentations with artificial intelligence were also developed, and the entire course was placed on an educational platform with Open Access. For each of the issues, sets of attractive forms of verification of the acquired knowledge have also been developed. The works use the latest solutions that are attractive to today's youth.