BUILDING COMMUNITY AND CONNECTION TO THE CONTENT IN AN ONLINE OR HYFLEX INTRODUCTORY GEOLOGY COURSE

One of the many challenges of teaching online or HyFlex (some students in-person and some students attending virtually) classes during the COVID-19 pandemic is fostering a sense of community amongst students in an introductory geology course. In a HyFlex course, creating an environment where students attending virtually can engage with students who attend class in-person is difficult. Even in an in-person classroom, creating an audio environment where all students can hear each other for small group discussion is limited by the presence of masks as well as social distancing requirements, which prevent students from moving around the room.

Flipgrid is a free program that allows students to engage in discussion with one another by recording their own videos in response to a prompt provided by the professor. The program can be used through the website on student laptops or with the Flipgrid app on mobile devices. In Fall 2020, Flipgrid was utilized in two sections of a HyFlex introductory geology course at St. Norbert College (enrollment of 24 students each). Students were broken into groups of four or five, with groups changing three times throughout the semester. Each week, students would complete a brief activity related to the content (watch a short video, take an online quiz, search for resources on a topic) and would then record a video selfie where they responded to an open-ended prompt about that activity. Students were also required to record video responses to at least two students within their group. Students were guided on topics of online etiquette and professionalism at the beginning of the semester. After watching all videos and responses, the professor emailed the class with a summary and additional links for more information on the topic of the week.

Benefits to the weekly Flipgrid assignments included building a community feeling within the class and helping students connect the content to their daily lives. Between the two sections, 92% of students responded to an anonymous survey that they felt the Flipgrid assignments built a sense of community in the class. In addition, 92% of students between the two sections felt that all or most of the Flipgrid assignments helped them connect with the content personally. The same type of strategy could certainly be utilized in a fully online introductory geology course.