HR: 1340h
AN: ED13E-1171    [Abstracts]
TI: When the globe is your classroom: teaching and learning about large-scale environmental change online
AU: * Howard, E A
EM: eahoward@wisc.edu
AF: Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment, University of Wisconsin - Madison, 1710 University Ave., Madison, WI 53726 United States
AU: Coleman, K J
EM: kjcoleman@wisc.edu
AF: Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment, University of Wisconsin - Madison, 1710 University Ave., Madison, WI 53726 United States
AU: Barford, C L
EM: clbarford@wisc.edu
AF: Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment, University of Wisconsin - Madison, 1710 University Ave., Madison, WI 53726 United States
AU: Kucharik, C
EM: kucharik@wisc.edu
AF: Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment, University of Wisconsin - Madison, 1710 University Ave., Madison, WI 53726 United States
AU: Foley, J A
EM: jfoley@wisc.edu
AF: Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment, University of Wisconsin - Madison, 1710 University Ave., Madison, WI 53726 United States
AB: Understanding environmental problems that cross physical and disciplinary boundaries requires a more holistic view of the world - a "systems" approach. Yet it is a challenge for many learners to start thinking this way, particularly when the problems are large in scale and not easily visible. We will describe our online university course, "Humans and the Changing Biosphere," which takes a whole-systems perspective for teaching regional to global-scale environmental science concepts, including climate, hydrology, ecology, and human demographics. We will share our syllabus and learning objectives and summarize our efforts to incorporate "best" practices for online teaching. We will describe challenges we have faced, and our efforts to reach different learner types. Our goals for this presentation are: (1) to communicate how a systems approach ties together environmental sciences (including climate, hydrology, ecology, biogeochemistry, and demography) that are often taught as separate disciplines; (2) to generate discussion about challenges of teaching large-scale environmental processes; (3) to share our experiences in teaching these topics online; (4) to receive ideas and feedback on future teaching strategies. We will explain why we developed this course online, and share our experiences about benefits and challenges of teaching over the web - including some suggestions about how to use technology to supplement face-to-face learning experiences (and vice versa). We will summarize assessment data about what students learned during the course, and discuss key misconceptions and barriers to learning. We will highlight the role of an online discussion board in creating classroom community, identifying misconceptions, and engaging different types of learners.
DE: 0810 Post-secondary education
DE: 0820 Curriculum and laboratory design
DE: 0825 Teaching methods
DE: 0850 Geoscience education research
DE: 0855 Diversity
SC: Education and Human Resources [ED]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005