ADAPTING AN ONLINE COURSE FOR A LARGE STUDENT COHORT

Earth in the Future: Predicting Climate Change and Its Impacts Over the Next Century is a modular general education course designed to give a broad survey of the science underlying climate change as well as the impacts on natural and human systems. The course has three major goals: (1) to provide an understanding of climate science and of the possible scenarios of how climate may change in the future; (2) to analyze the linkages between climate and major human and natural systems; and (3) to understand the potential responses to climate change, including both adaptation to, and mitigation of change. The general education course is the entry point for certificate and minor programs in Earth Sustainability.

We are in the process of revamping the course, which has been running for five years in both fully online and flipped mode. The goal is to update the content, simplify the activities, and expand the online sections from 150 to 350 students. Much of the focus of the revision is on the laboratory exercises, which are a key part of every module. The current set of labs utilizes Excel, Google Earth, STELLLA model experiments and other web based exercises. Reviews from previous students, especially in fully online sections, indicate that we have involved too many different technologies in lab exercises, detracting from learning and frustrating students. We work one on one with students, thus the confusion resulting from multiple platforms also increases faculty and teaching assistant workload considerably. Thus as part of the course revision, the laboratories are being streamlined to use just two platforms, Google Earth and STELLA. All fully online labs will involve a worksheet including a set of no-stakes questions that students can use to practice before submitting answers in the course management system. Expanding the course also includes the development of large quiz question banks and no stakes activities designed to amplify learning.