INCORPORATION OF FIELD GEOLOGY INVESTIGATIONS IN ONLINE LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS

William Buckland, first reader of geology at Oxford, recognized the importance of field investigations in the 1800s. He often brought his students—via horseback—to examine area outcrops and geologic features. It was also through field education that Buckland eventually embraced Agassiz’s glacial theory, and abandoned catastrophism. Even today, many geologists rally around the slogan that “geology is best taught in the field.” Transportation costs and time considerations can make geology field education problematic, but these difficulties are compounded when students are enrolled in online classes, and approach the “field” from a variety of geographic locations.

To circumvent some of the difficulties of field instruction in online classrooms, we incorporated an individualized approach, where students (N = 80) utilized their local landscapes. In several research assignments, students integrated local fossils and landforms in an application of the course’s geoscience content. Students conducted interdisciplinary investigations of fossilization processes, evolution, and geologic time within their local areas. Our online students reconstructed local paleoenvironments, and documented the changes in their field sites throughout Earth’s history.

At the semesters' end, anonymous surveys sought students’ perceptions of local field investigations. Students reported that the greatest value of self-directed field research was the incorporation of local areas for environmental change investigations. Students stated that use of local field sites led to more in-depth understanding of science content, and facilitated an understanding of “the big picture.” Although students were often visually and culturally familiar with the landscapes they researched, informal field education assisted the recognition of their local landscape’s place—and importance—in Earth history.

Student-directed field research in local environments did not result in significant course-management changes for our online classes. We assert the benefits to online students far outweigh any constraints for utilizing an individualized, local field approach. Geology education in the 21^st century should include field experiences, even when the course is conducted in cyberspace.