Do-It-Your-Soil 2.0- Web-Based Training in Applied Soil Science.

Do-It-Your-Soil (DIYS) is an e-learning course aiming to teach how basic knowledge in soil sciences can be applied to real-world problems with respect to the sustainable management and protection of soil as a limiting and precious environmental resource, bridging the discrepancy between abstract concepts and field reality. DIYS has been successfully employed in the teaching of 22 institutions in Europe and Africa during the last seven years. In 2012, the project DIYS 2.0 was launched to tackle the following challenges:  keep DIYS up to date with scientific progress, make DIYS accessible to English speaking students and extend the content of DIYS. DIYS 2.0 will be released spring 2014.

Up to now, the course consisted of six modules on soil water balance, dynamics of soil organic matter, soil acidification, soil erosion, soil aeration and compaction, and soil fertility and sustainability. Two new modules will cover the topics of soil contamination and soil salinization. The modules are structured in such a way that the students are guided step by step through the problems. Because of the modular design of DIYS and its didactic concept of self-guided learning, DIYS is suitable for both bachelor and master students. The way DIYS is used varies among the user institutions from a stand-alone course to the use of selected modules or parts of modules as supporting material for lectures. DIYS can be used free of charge for non-commercial educational purposes and thus is attractive also for teaching soil science in institutions with limited budgets.