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Presentation Time: 10:45 AM

TEACHING GEOSCIENCE ONLINE


RICHARDS, Bill, Department of Geology/Geography, North Idaho College, 1000 W. Garden Ave, Coeur d'Alene, ID 83814, ROHRBACK-SCHIAVONE, Robin, Geology Department, Northern Virginia Community College, Annandale, VA 22003 and BENTLEY, Callan, Geology, Northern Virginia Community College, Annandale, VA 22003, BDRichards@NIC.EDU

[This is Table 5 at the Digital Geology Express session—a blend of workshop and digital poster. Free participant sign-up at www.digitalplanet.org. Participants get a seat at each table and hands-on interaction.]

Geoscience courses are very different to, say, algebra or physics, and they present unique challenges to the online instructor. Chief among these are the inability to provide students with field experiences, to provide them hand specimens to examine, or to let them gather around a large paper map. However, there are advantages to the online course delivery mode. Students on virtual field trips can go lots of places, including some which are physically or temporally impossible to visit otherwise. Virtual field experiences also allow for pre-trip exploration and post-trip reflection/repetition. We have developed a number of useful technologies including innovative gigapans. Hand specimens used to require either onsite visits, cumbersome postal arrangements, or expensive 3D scanners, but 123D Catch has opened new possibilities. In addition, our research-grow phase developed logging and auto-scoring exercises in which the computer tracks students mouse clicks and keystrokes. This provides machine-gradable geoscience exercises to be developed, overcoming yet another challenge for online instruction.

Session No. 143

T119. Digital Geology Express (Digital Posters)
Monday, 28 October 2013: 9:00 AM-6:30 PM
Hall D (Colorado Convention Center)
Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 45, No. 7, p.369
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