THE ONLINE CANTEEN: CREATING A FIELD COURSE COMMUNITY IN A VIRTUAL REALITY

The strength of shared experiences from field courses is commonly cited as a major part of the decision to pursue a career in geosciences. Field classes are unique experiential learning opportunities that are essential for providing a larger contextual understanding that is required of a geoscientist and cannot be substituted with labwork or classroom lectures. Working in groups in a new environment, students grow considerably and learn how to think critically, communicate, listen, form flexible interpretations, and build confidence. As we transitioned our field course to an online format, we prioritized building these unique, foundational community experiences.

We approached community building in two ways. 1) We built a strong and accessible network of instructors to design and implement the class and group work during the day. This was possible because the Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences funded more instructors (graduate students, post-doctoral researchers and faculty) than are usually involved in summer field courses, allowing for a 1:3 instructor to student ratio, dividing responsibilities, and enabling more one-on-one instruction to students. 2) We utilized social technologies to facilitate communication and group work. Daily meetings were held on Zoom to discuss content and learning activities. We found the use of breakout rooms during lectures improved discussion participation and helped facilitate group work. Walkie-talkies in traditional field courses are used for safety and easy communication. To retain this quick, casual, and stress-free communication, we set up a Slack Channel. We chose to move these conversations away from email chains and the Canvas class site where discussions/assignments are formal, mandatory, and often graded. Students utilized Slack among themselves and formed their own independent Channels to communicate with each other in addition to reaching instructors. Although transitioning to a virtual field class poses many challenges, we successfully created an online community. Regardless of course format, we can intentionally develop inclusive spaces using social technology such as Slack.