BUILDING VIRTUAL FIELD TRIPS FOR 2YC STUDENTS

The pandemic highlighted a need for robust student-focused and teacher-facilitated educational material that can be delivered remotely; however, a strength of geology courses is the opportunity for students to engage in active learning in the form of field trips. Leading field trips at 2YC can be challenging even before the pandemic. Since the pandemic, it is clear students have a thirst for online learning that gives them more flexibility when exploring course content. The primary goal of this project was to successfully adapt student-centered active learning material to remote learning as a tool to help broaden student participation by increasing accessibility to sound geology content. Four virtual field trips (VFT) to Iceland, Hawai`i, and the Midwest were built using Google Earth. The VFTs were introduced into three introductory geology courses to determine if VFTs create an active learning environment that improves student learning and participation. The VFTs were constructed by merging original content, including photospheres, site-specific photographs, and artwork with existing photospheres and 3D pans on Google Earth. Links to existing content specific websites were also added. Information pop-up windows in Google Earth guided students through activities. To assess the efficacy of the VFT, students were given a pre-VFT quiz that addressed VFT and course learning outcomes. At the end of the VFT, students completed the same quiz. Students also completed an exit survey to assess satisfaction and difficulty with the VFT. Based on exit survey results: 22% of participants found the VFT challenging to navigate, 44% found the content challenging, 90% felt they learned something, and 85% enjoyed the activity. Based on quiz results, proficiency rose on 6 of the 8 questions post VFT. While this shows some improvement, when the total scores are added up, students as a whole did not appear to develop a statistically significant deeper understanding of the material. Changes to improve proficiency include rewording material for clarity and emphasis of main points of the learning objectives. The VFT was intended to take the place of an 8-hour field trip and students worked on the VFT over the course of two class sessions. Interspersing the VFT activities throughout the semester may improve engagement and proficiency.