RAISING THE BAR: A MORE HOLISTIC APPROACH TO SERVING GEOSCIENCE EDUCATION IN ALL MODES OF INSTRUCTION: IN-PERSON, HYBRID, AND VIRTUAL

Many factors affect the proportion of highest achieving college students in online, hybrid and in-person instruction. Pre-pandemic grades in introductory Earth Science college classes fell up to 31% from Spring 2020 to Spring 2022. The World Health Organization (2023) declared the end of the COVID-19 pandemic in Spring 2023. GPA recovery began in earnest from Fall 2022 to Fall 2023, reaching pre-pandemic heights. In Spring 2024 top students exceeded pre-pandemic levels by up to 45%.

Holistic measures aided recovery: support offices helped students acquire exam extensions and excused absences for medical reasons or socioeconomic hardship; more small quizzes, fewer large exams and more pre-exam reviews per student feedback; convenient access to media libraries and public databases of useful material such as earth science infographics (blm.gov 2021). These help students in all modes of instruction.

Transferring services that primarily benefit online students increases the potency of all graduates. Examples include virtual petrography databases (University of Toronto), virtual field trips (University of Illinois) and high-resolution 3D images (Marshak 2022). Online labs taught dendrochronology to underrepresented minorities at a Hispanic Serving Institution (Davi et al. 2019).

While some field experiences may not be replicated online, virtual learning has propelled innovation. 3D printed rock samples were synthesized to predict fracture formation (Purdue 2020). Regolith-Polymer 3D printing technology used in-situ materials such as local regolith for large-scale additive construction (NASA 2022). It may be possible to mass-produce high-quality synthetic rock and mineral samples. Once the technology reaches economies of scale, it could be a powerful tool in serving socioeconomically disadvantaged students.

Cervato et al. (2013) proposed hybrid instruction with in-person lab or field portions, and online lectures. This aligns with student preferences for more flexible schedules (Alam et al, 2024), and addresses practical and logistical limitations of virtual learning, including transferability of multisensor skills and quality control: "cyberlearning environment should not significantly alter or reduce neither its objectives nor its expected learning outcomes" (Feig 2010).

There is no uniform pedagogical tool that can achieve desired outcomes.