MACROSCOPIC IMPACT TRENDS FROM THE PANDEMIC ON GEOSCIENCE PROGRAMS

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about many changes to geoscience instructional environments, impacting departments, faculty, and students alike. The swift switch to online instruction and learning created many challenges as well as opportunities related to new ways of teaching and learning. From learning new platforms for content delivery, re-designing existing courses, adapting home environments for remote working and learning, and navigating the impacts of the pandemic on meeting degree requirements for graduation, departments, faculty, and students have had to be flexible and adapt quickly to changing conditions. This has all come with a cost, and some potential benefits as well.

Over a year and a half after the start of the pandemic, we are beginning to witness the lasting impacts of COVID-19 on instructional environments and on students’ skills and knowledge development. This presentation provides a macroscopic looks at the impacts across geoscience programs from AGI’s NSF-supported Geoscience COVID-19 Impacts study that began in May 2020 and will continue through March 2022. We explore the changes in geoscience academic department operations since March 2020 and how instructional formats have changed since pre-pandemic times. We also examine pandemic-related impacts to faculty, including workloads, challenges faced, and benefits / opportunities that have resulted from the pandemic. Last but not least, we will look at the impacts on students, including how well they have managed remote learning, how the pandemic has impacted their degree progress, and what impacts have occurred to their skills and knowledge development.