HISTORICAL GEOLOGY FOR THE 21ST CENTURY: A FREE, OPEN-ACCESS TEXT“BOOK”

Historical geology is a challenging class to teach at an introductory level because it requires synthesis of a wide variety of geological concepts from tectonics, paleontology, geochemistry, stratigraphy, and more. Many textbooks on the commercial market slog through these topics as they step through 4.6 billion years, leading to overwhelming narratives of the Earth through time. Recent science standards suggest that a systems approach to Earth science is more applicable to today’s students, providing opportunity to put learning about deep time in a broader contextual framework. Open educational resources (OER) are free or low-cost textbooks or educational materials that offer exceptional opportunities for incorporating rich learning tools into texts, while also meeting the critical need of driving down textbook costs for students.

VIVA, the academic library consortium of Virginia, supports initiatives to provide OER resources to citizens of the Commonwealth. Through a VIVA Course Redesign Grant, we are developing a new, introductory-level OER historical geology text to meet the needs of our students. Our text incorporates a systems approach to historical geology while emphasizing quality visualizations, such as animations, annotated photos, and explanatory videos, which we are creating or compiling from currently existing OER sources. Assessment tools will be embedded in the text. We also are working to write an inclusive product that will provide spotlights on diverse scientists that highlight various geoscience disciplines relevant to Historical Geology. Partnering with geoscience faculty at Salt Lake Community College (SLCC) who have written an introductory physical geology OER text, we hope to make their website, opengeology.org, a one-stop source for quality introductory level OER geology texts. Sections of the text that have been completed will be piloted in Spring 2020 courses at the authors’ home institutions. General assessment and feedback data will be collected from students who use the text. The text should be available for widespread use by Summer 2020.