This collaborative project builds on prior work to expand, augment and disseminate geoscience learning resources based on the affordances of the Google Earth virtual globe. Components of the project include 1) development of a suite of globally distributed interactive virtual fields trips which add high-resolution gigapixel panoramic images, virtual outcrops and specimens, and automated grading to the Google Earth base, 2) using the Earth Engine API to integrate large geoscience datasets into the virtual globe, enabling additional forms of inquiry-based learning and undergraduate research, 3) expanding toolkits, including mobile apps, to enable a broader range of faculty and students to contribute crowd-sourced data and educational resources to an online repository, 4) conducting face-to-face and online faculty professional-development workshops to promote use, and 5) assessing dissemination efforts and student learning gains through a combination of surveys, clickstream data and pre-/post-tests.
The intellectual merit of this project lies in its ability to leverage user-friendly, cutting-edge virtual-globe and gigapixel-imaging technology to engage students in an array of learning activities and virtual settings. Assessment is combining discrete collection of data through surveys and pre- and post-tests with more-continuous clickstream data to provide insights into how students learn in such virtual environments.
The broader impacts of the project include 1) its applicability across a wide range of institutions, both as formal course assignments and for ancillary use in and beyond the undergraduate geoscience curriculum, 2) extensive faculty professional development using face-to-face, webinar and group-video-conferencing approaches, 3) materials development specifically for pre-service science teachers, and 4) provision of access for mobility-impaired students, as well as those with work or family commitments which limit participation in actual field trips.
