THE LARGE-ENROLLMENT SEISMOLOGY SKILL BUILDING WORKSHOP AS A GEOSCIENCE RECRUITING TOOL

The Seismology Skill Building Workshop is a MOOC-style online training that has enrolled at least 700 students annually since 2020 and grew to 1400 in 2024. It was originally restricted to recent undergraduates, but has been open to all since 2022, with 36% enrolled in graduate school in 2024. The workshop is designed for inclusivity by eliminating major barriers such as the cost of enrollment, computing requirements, access to a campus where seismology is offered, and costs associated with travel and class prerequisites. We have collected data via registrations, pre-/post-workshop surveys, and student performance on assignments to evaluate whether large-enrollment online training is an opportunity to increase interest and diversity in geoscience. A primary finding is that the workshop has enrolled ~20-30% from non-geoscience majors, indicating it can be used for recruiting people to geoscience. This is supported by survey data from 2020 that found a ~50% increase in self-reported interest in pursuing geoscience graduate school and careers.

Since the inception of the workshop the participation of students from outside the US has grown from 46% in 2020 to 83% in 2024. When considering only participants from the United States in 2020, the participation of women (59%) and marginalized racial and ethnic groups (29%) in the SSBW was greater than that of undergraduate geoscience degrees awarded to women in 2019 (46%) and double the percentage awarded to marginalized groups in 2016 (15%). These indications of higher diversity are supported by a repeat study of 2024 US participants with slight increases of 62% women and 32% marginalized groups. An analysis of the 2020 data found that most demographic factors, including gender, race and ethnicity did not show any association with completion of the workshop. Collectively, these findings suggest there is a strong demand for skill-building such that large-enrollment online training can be an important opportunity for recruiting people to geoscience.