Next‐generation field courses: Integrating Open Science and online learning

Geange, Sonya R.; Oppen, Jonathan von; Strydom, Tanya; Boakye, Mickey; Gauthier, Thierry; Gya, Ragnhild; Halbritter, Aud H.; Jessup, Laura H.; Middleton, Sara L.; Navarro, Jocelyn; Pierfederici, Maria Elisa; Chacón‐Labella, Julia; Cotner, Sehoya; Farfán-Ríos, William; Maitner, Brian S.; Michaletz, Sean T.; Telford, Richard J.; Enquist, Brian J.; Vandvik, Vigdis

doi:10.1002/ece3.7009

Cited by 16 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 88 publications

(126 reference statements)

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“…In keeping with the cognitive apprenticeship and development theme of the course, the course also aims to provide opportunities for researchers, especially those early in their careers, to experience and grow from field-based teaching (Geange et al, 2021). This has required a conscious professional development focus, and application of the apprenticeship model, to bring early career researchers into the teaching team, and to embrace high turnover in the broader staff group.…”

Section: How the Course Structure Achieves The Course Aimsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Field courses are an immersive example of research-led enquiry-based learning that can provide students with their first exposure to independent research (Geange et al, 2021). Field courses also provide particular opportunities for undergraduates to experience, recognise and experience integrative learning i.e., learning that connects disparate concepts or disciplines, as opposed to fragmented or compartmentalised learning (Durrant and Hartmann, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The skills attained in field courses also translate to increased graduate employability (Peacock & Bacon, 2018; Mauchline et al, 2013). Studying in the field also helps students understand that nature is incredibly complex, integrated and interdependent, and requires inter-disciplinary thinking (Durrant & Hartmann, 2014; Geange et al, 2021; Behrendt & Franklin, 2014). To maximise the value of learning and the return on investment, therefore, a best practice field course needs to be cost-effective and efficient and provide multiple benefits for both students and teaching staff that extend beyond new discipline knowledge to broader career-enhancing skills.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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An innovative approach to using an intensive field course to build scientific and professional skills

Nicotra

Geange

Bahar

et al. 2021

Preprint

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This paper reports on the design and evaluation of Field Studies in Functional Ecology (FSFE), a two-week intensive residential field course that engages students to master core content in functional ecology alongside skills that facilitate their transition from ‘student’ to ‘scientist’. This paper provides an overview of the course structure, showing how the constituent elements have been designed and refined over successive iterations of the course. We detail how FSFE students are guided first to develop their own research questions (Field Problems), and then through a structured reflective approach of rapid prototyping and iterative refinement of each stage of the research process. Using extensive evaluation data, we show how, coached by experts within a cognitive apprenticeship framework, FSFE students develop a coherent and nuanced understanding of how to approach and execute ecological studies. The sophisticated knowledge and skills as ecology researchers that they develop during the course is highlighted through high quality presentations and peer-reviewed publications in a student-led journal. We illustrate how field course elements can be used to provide cognitive, affective and reflective tools that allow students to gain maximum value from their educational journey, and the confidence to consider research in their future careers.

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Section: How the Course Structure Achieves The Course Aimsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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An innovative approach to using an intensive field course to build scientific and professional skills

Nicotra

Geange

Bahar

et al. 2021

Preprint

Self Cite

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“…The COVID‐19 situation has shown that as researchers we can do a lot of our work and collaborate with other researchers remotely. But working remotely sometimes raises a lot of challenges in terms of “real‐time” collaboration (Geange et al., 2020; Holt et al., 2020; Trogisch et al., 2020). Online collaboration tools enable us to work together efficiently, either through facilitating communication, the sharing or storage of files and documentation, and the capacity to work in a coordinated manner (Burgio et al., 2020).…”

Section: Remote Collaborations: Online Platforms Version Control and Reproducibility Toolsmentioning

confidence: 99%

From a crisis to an opportunity: Eight insights for doing science in the COVID‐19 era and beyond

Chacón‐Labella

Boakye

Enquist

et al. 2020

Ecology and Evolution

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“…Conversely, empirical activities, such as active learning projects (Gahl et al, 2020 ), can be disregarded as less efficient in motivating students into acquiring new knowledge without having to pass an exam. Fortunately, in the current critical context, developing innovative online teaching and learning approaches, and using any available technologies, has become a key priority (Gahl et al, 2020 ; Geange et al, 2020 ; Houtz et al, 2020 ; Richter et al, 2020 ; Van Haeften et al, 2020 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Undergraduates' perceptions on emergency remote learning in ecology in the post‐pandemic era

Pagani‐Núñez

Yan

Hong

et al. 2022

Ecology and Evolution

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The COVID‐19 pandemic has strongly disrupted academic activities, particularly in disciplines with a strong empirical component among other reasons by limiting our mobility. It is thus essential to assess emergency remote teaching plans by surveying learners’ opinions and perceptions during these unusual circumstances. To achieve this aim, we conducted a survey during the spring semester of 2021 in an environmental science program to ascertain learners’ perceptions on online and onsite learning activities in ecology‐based modules. We were particularly interested not only in comparing the performance of these two types of activities but also in understanding the role played by learners’ perceptions about nature in shaping this pattern. Environmental science programs are rather heterogeneous from a conceptual point of view and, thus, learners may also be more diverse than in traditional ecology programs, which may affect their interest for ecology‐based modules. We assessed connectedness to nature by computing the reduced version of the Nature Relatedness Scale. Here, we found that online activities systematically obtained significantly lower scores than onsite activities regardless of the wording employed, and that altruistic behaviors were prevalent among learners. Interestingly, scores for both onsite and online activities were strongly influenced by learners’ connectedness to nature, as learners with a stronger connection to nature gave higher scores to both types of activities. Our results suggest that an effort to improve the efficacy of remote learning activities should be the focus of research about teaching methodologies in predominantly empirical scientific disciplines.

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Next‐generation field courses: Integrating Open Science and online learning

Abstract: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Cited by 16 publications

References 88 publications

An innovative approach to using an intensive field course to build scientific and professional skills

An innovative approach to using an intensive field course to build scientific and professional skills

From a crisis to an opportunity: Eight insights for doing science in the COVID‐19 era and beyond

Undergraduates' perceptions on emergency remote learning in ecology in the post‐pandemic era

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