Faculty 5, Division of Mineral Resources and Raw Materials Engineering
Virtual Display Collection of Minerals is a quick and easy way to improve access to mineral specimens and provide relevant general information
The Virtual Display Collection of Minerals, developed at the Institute of Mineral Resources Engineering – MRE, is used for example in the course “Primary Raw Materials Management 1” of the “B. Sc. Sustainable Raw Materials and Energy Supply” to help students gain a better understanding of the most important minerals used in mineral-based industries.
Previously, students could only view the specimens from a distance since they were housed in closed showcases. Now, using the virtual display, the mineral specimens can be rotated 360 degrees and zoomed in using a mouse to view high-resolution details. The accompanying short texts describe the most important properties of the minerals, their chemical composition as well as relevant general formation.
The platform currently provides information on 20 minerals, which are divided into the following four groups: oxide/hydroxides, sulphides, carbonates and gangue minerals. The platform can be used during lectures as well for self-study for the preparation and post-processing of the lecture content.
Virtual Reference Work enables a better overall understanding of the learning material
The virtual reference work of the Unit of Mineral Processing (AMR) is used to supplement lecture notes. It contains data sheets for the most important minerals used in the primary resource industry. Furthermore, an overview of relevant processing machines, their technical specifications and general flowsheets describing the processing of specific ores and industrial minerals are included.
The mineral data sheets are grouped by ores, industrial minerals and precious stones. For each mineral, physical properties relevant for processing and use in the final product is listed.
The machine data sheets list technical specifications, areas of application and examples of the integration of the specific machine in the entire preparation process.
Use of digital lecture reprints to support self-paced learning
A digital lecture reprint (DIUM) with MadCap-Flare® was developed and used in various courses given in the Division of Mineral Resources and Raw Materials Engineering. The reprints are in the form of interactive reference works and serve to supplement the lectures. They provide detailed descriptions and explanations of the lecture slides and include additional texts, illustrations and videos.
As the video shows, students can call these up individually with a mouse click or orientate themselves using a keyword search.
In addition, questions which are useful when preparing for exams can be integrated into the digital reprint.
Selected courses using digital reprint include:
1. Energy resources and technology 1&2 at the Unit of Technologies of Fuels - TEER
2. Fundamentals of Mechanics and Machine Components 3 (GMK 3) at the Institute for Advanced Mining Technologies – AMT
The digital reprints were integrated into L2P and will be integrated into RWTHMoodle in the future.