INVESTIGATING STUDENT PERSPECTIVE AND EXPERIENCE WITH ONLINE GEOSCIENCE FIRST YEAR GENERAL EDUCATION SCIENCE COURSES

This poster will provide preliminary results from a quantitative study investigating undergraduate students’ views, based on their experience, on how best faculty can present course content in large, introductory online geoscience and general education science courses. The study is intended to survey approximately 1500 or more students enrolled in 10 or more general science education courses at the undergraduate level. One of the main goals in performing the study is for the investigators to ultimately develop and establish detailed, effective eLearning practices covering different aspects of eLearning. The practices will in part be based specifically on empirical evidence taken from systematic, ongoing surveys and focus groups of multi-year, diverse undergraduate Natural Science (NATS) general education courses at York University. The data obtained from undergraduate students surveyed will inform the guidelines but not necessarily be the sole basis on which the guidelines are created and developed. Consideration will also be given to principles enunciated in existing literature on the subject and to direct faculty input through focus groups. It is anticipated that the final guidelines formulated will be adopted for use by all undergraduate online programs at York University in Toronto, Canada.