DESIGNING LABS IN THE DIGITAL AGE: UTILIZING ONLINE PALEOBIOLOGY COLLECTIONS TO ENGAGE COMMUNITY COLLEGE STUDENTS

Advancing Community College Education and Student Success in Paleontology (ACCESS Paleo) is a collaborative partnership between University of California (UC) Berkeley, the UC Museum of Paleontology (UCMP), and Bay Area community colleges. In typical years, the program features hands-on and specimen-based lab courses utilizing fossils from the UCMP collections. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has created unique obstacles for the UCMP and other museums with the inability to access collections and in-person exhibits. As we expand the ACCESS Paleo program for community colleges, we are increasingly concerned about continuing to accommodate a diverse body of students with differing needs. The adaptation of the ACCESS labs to a digital format provides an opportunity to take advantage of a wider range of resources to meet the needs of community college programs.

Extensive institutional efforts by the Paleontological Research Institution (PRI; Digital Atlas of Ancient Life) and the UCMP to digitize museum collections over the last several years have produced a wealth of online resources, including pictures, video, and three-dimensional models that can be utilized to convert community engagement programs to a digital format. We are transforming the ACCESS labs to take full advantage of these online museum resources along with the Paleobiology Database (PBDB). Incorporating these into digital ACCESS labs enables students to explore paleobiology beyond the UCMP collections and allows us to emphasize inquiry, formulating hypotheses, and testing ideas through evidence, which are critical for student engagement and development. Furthermore, a digital lab format increases accessibility by removing physical barriers such as travel distance or the ability to transport specimens. Digital labs also provide the opportunity for synchronous, asynchronous, or hybrid lesson formats depending on the needs of the instructors and students, with facilitation by members of the ACCESS team when requested by instructors. As we work to develop and refine these digital labs, we hope to augment them with additional virtual-reality experiences centered around the UCMP to increase the accessibility of our collections to community colleges as well as the broader public.