Abstract:

Emergency remote teaching during the pandemic has had long-term impacts in STEM classrooms, from the organization and design of these courses to student experience during this time. From the spring semester of 2020 until the fall semester of 2021 emergency remote teaching had encouraged instructors to adapt their resources to be on an online platform. This change had further encouraged instructors to add additional online resources, such as video recordings of lectures and online assignments, to their course. Many aspects of instruction were shifted remotely, such as having virtual lectures being synchronous or prerecorded and including web-based assignments. The following project focused on an introductory geology course that was taught at a large public research institution. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Geology and its Application, was taught as an in-person lecture style course and has now transitioned to an online course. The instructional style has shifted as a result and has a stronger focus on course design and incorporates active learning strategies and engaging resources. This course utilizes novel multimedia to deliver lecturer content and are organized in an online module format. The novel multimedia that was used for instruction helped engage students and increase their perception and interest in a geology course. These high-quality resources were created to change modalities for an introductory geology course to be fully online. In addition to these videos the course was created to use open educational resources and interactive assignments to reduce student cost. In this study, student perceptions of an introductory geology course that was transitioned to an online course after the pandemic will be investigated. Overall, students enjoyed the module structure of the course and believed that the course assignments (guided notes, discussion boards, case studies) were beneficial in teaching them not only for the exam, but also in the context of real-world scenarios. The majority of the surveyed students also appreciated the interactive components of the course where they were able to converse with their peers, which helps address student concerns of lack of communication in online courses. The following project will expand the discussion on the effects of COVID-19 on geoscience education by sharing instructor and student experiences during spring 2021.

Keywords:

Emergency remote teaching, online course design, student experience, novel multimedia.