VIRTUAL FIELD INVESTIGATIONS: THE ADVANTAGES OF GOOGLE EARTH IN ONLINE CLASSROOMS

Although many college geoscience courses include field components, incorporation of field education can be problematic in online environments. To partially address a lack of traditional, on-site field excursions in our online classrooms, we incorporated virtual field exercises within online physical geology courses composed primarily of practicing Earth science teachers.

In four sections of Geology I: Processes and Products (n = 44, 36, 32, 18), we utilized Google Earth activities. Students investigated various landforms and processes, constructed topographic profiles, and mapped features using the software’s free version. Google Earth activity questions, chosen randomly from test banks by the course platform software, were included on four timed laboratory quizzes. Analysis revealed no significance (α = 0.05) between students’ performance on Google Earth items and traditional quiz questions.

Students reported in end-of-semester anonymous surveys that Google Earth activities had several benefits within an online classroom: 1) Google Earth injected newer mapping technologies in the class, 2) virtual field exercises supplied real-life Earth images as opposed to textbook diagrams; and 3) other applications of Google Earth—including K-12 classroom incorporation—were apparent to online students. Virtual field investigations allowed students to investigate Earth features that would be difficult to observe in traditional field investigations, and added a real-world component to the geoscience content presented in the course.

Student comments also provided constructive feedback for enhanced online implementation of Google Earth activities. Our improved online model now includes 1) streaming video demonstrations for students less familiar with computer environments/mapping software, 2) maximized impact with minimal virtual field activities, and 3) no-risk pre-assignments to facilitate student understanding. “Less is more” in online environments, and virtual field activities should be carefully chosen for maximized content while avoiding over-saturation. Online students also appreciate a “fail-safe” environment. Pre-activity assignments with solutions provide practice and skill-honing before a scored activity is assigned.