2026/07/30 by Renee M. Clary, Athena Owen Nagel, Eric Shows
Social Sciences · #Active learning (machine learning) #Community college #Course (navigation) #Course evaluation #Geography Education and Pedagogy #Indigenous and Place-Based Education #Innovative Teaching Methods #Learning sciences #Online course #Online learning #Science education #Science learning #Sense of community
paper · doi:10.1080/0047231x.2026.2710280
crossref issued 2026/07/30 · crossref published 2026/07/30 · crossref published-online 2026/07/30 · openalex publication_date 2026/07/30 · crossref created 2026/07/30 · crossref deposited 2026/07/30 · crossref indexed 2026/07/30 · openalex created_date 2026/07/31 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
To address the lack of face-to-face introductory geology courses offered at our state’s community colleges, we developed place-based online courses that incorporated active-learning strategies and student investigation of their local environments. Science content was related to the state through short, introductory videos that we filmed with a GoPro camera. Each unit also included a brief video interview with a scientist employed in the field. Through discussion boards, we developed an online community of learners with shared assignments’ results and local examples. Paired pre- and post-surveys documented students’ science learning gains, while content analysis of end-of-semester survey responses revealed that students found the online course design effective, and that they enjoyed learning about the science through their state. We propose this course design is transferable to other science content. Based on our results, we offer recommendations for successful online course design through consistent course structure, place-based science content, and active student engagement.