nQuire was developed to support Inquiry-based activities for secondary education science learning within the Personal Inquiry project and further developed within the Open Science Laboratory. Currently, nQuire is part of a project currently funded by the Nominet trust. The nQuire platform is the web-based environment chosen to support the “Inquiring Rock Hunters” project.
nQuire was adapted and customised to support the development of “Inquiring Rock Hunters”. The distinctive aspects and the nQuire features that supported them in this project are:
- Inquiry-based Learning: Authoring tool, Inquiry diagram
- Communication: Forum, Chat, Inquiry Results
- Mentoring: Geology knowledge and techniques, sources, experts
- Informal settings: integrated tools, tutorials