Teaching an experiential field course via online participatory science projects: A COVID‐19 case study of a UC California Naturalist course

• Published in: Ecology and Evolution Vol. 11; no. 8; pp. 3537 - 3550
• Main Authors: Gerhart, Laci M., Jadallah, Christopher C., Angulo, Sarah S., Ira, Gregory C.
• Format: Journal Article Web Resource
• Language: English
• Published: England John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.04.2021; John Wiley and Sons Inc; Wiley
• Subjects: Academic Practice in Ecology and Evolution; California Naturalist; Case studies; Certification; citizen science; Colleges & universities; Core curriculum; COVID-19; Critical components; Curricula; Ecology; environmental literacy; Environmental science; Environmental stewardship; field course; Field study; Handbooks; Higher education; Learning; natural history; Online instruction; online pedagogy; Pandemics; participatory science; Platforms; remote instruction; Students; Teachers; Teaching; undergraduate education; United States > US; California; COVID‐19; participatory science; environmental literacy; citizen science; undergraduate education; field course; remote instruction; natural history; online pedagogy; California Naturalist
• ISSN: 2045-7758; 2045-7758
• DOI: 10.1002/ece3.7187

Experience and training in field work are critical components of undergraduate education in ecology, and many university courses incorporate field‐based or experiential components into the curriculum in order to provide students hands‐on experience. Due to the onset of the COVID‐19 pandemic and the sudden shift to remote instruction in the spring of 2020, many instructors of such courses found themselves struggling to identify strategies for developing rigorous field activities that could be completed online, solo, and from a student's backyard. This case study illustrates the process by which one field‐based course, a UC California Naturalist certification course offered at the University of California, Davis, transitioned to fully remote instruction. The transition relied on established, publicly available, online participatory science platforms (e.g., iNaturalist) to which the students contributed data and field observations remotely. Student feedback on the course and voluntary‐continued engagement with the participatory science platforms indicates that the student perspective of the experience was on par with previous traditional offerings of the course. This case study also includes topics and participatory science resources for consideration by faculty facing a similar transition from group field activities to remote, individual field‐based experiences. Experience and training in field work is a critical component of undergraduate education in ecology, and many university courses incorporate field‐based or experiential components into the curriculum in order to provide students hands‐on experience. Due to the onset of the COVID‐19 pandemic and the sudden shift to remote instruction in the spring of 2020, many instructors of such courses found themselves struggling to identify rigorous strategies for developing field activities that could be completed online, solo, and from a student’s backyard. This case study illustrates the process by which one field‐based course transitioned to fully remote instruction by relying on established, publicly available, online participatory science platforms (e.g., iNaturalist).