RESULTS, BENEFITS, AND LESSONS LEARNED FROM OUR QUICK PIVOT TO ONLINE GEODESY CURRICULUM PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: A REPORT FROM THE GETSI VIRTUAL MINI SHORT COURSE SERIES

GETSI (GEodesy Tools for Societal Issues) is an NSF-funded program that develops, tests, and disseminates data-rich and societally relevant geodesy curriculum for undergraduates. To date, GETSI has published 13 modules (each of which include 2-3 weeks of class material) co-authored by faculty at 2-year colleges (2YCs) and 4-year institutions (4YCUs) (serc.carleton.edu/getsi). The dissemination plan for the 2020-2021 academic year was a host of face-to-face local, regional, and national workshops for prospective faculty users. When the COVID19 pandemic necessitated the postponement and/or cancellation of essentially all face-to-face activities, the project pivoted to an online dissemination model for the 2020-2021 academic year and convened a GETSI Virtual Mini Short Course Series.

The GETSI Virtual Mini Short Course Series was held from October 2020 to April 2021 and included 9 mini-courses. Unlike a webinar, the majority of the mini-course consisted of time for participants to work individually and collaboratively through portions of the student exercises, discuss teaching ideas, and develop a plan for implementation. Intended for full-time and adjunct faculty at 2YCs and 4YCUs, post-doctoral fellows with an interest in teaching, graduate students with teaching or TA responsibilities, and K-12 teachers, participants could choose to attend one or more of the mini-courses, depending on their area(s) of interest. Each 2-hour mini-course, co-led by a GETSI PI and module co-author(s), highlighted a different GETSI module and offered participants a small stipend for completing an implementation plan for using GETSI materials in their classroom. We used a variety of active learning strategies during the mini courses, including think-pair-shares, polling, report-outs, gallery tours, and jigsaws.

We will compare the demographics of the 324 participants to past GETSI dissemination endeavors (which have been primarily in-person) and discuss the benefits and challenges of implementing these activities in an online environment based on our experiences with this series and participant feedback. The lessons learned from this unanticipated shift to virtual professional development have implications moving forward for designing high-quality, interactive professional development for the STEM community.