CLASSROOM EARTH


cies to deliver a field-based course this summer? Every other university said, “no thanks.”


We decided on a hybrid course, divided into 14 online course days immediately preceding the 15-day in-person field camp. It was essentially a Colorado College-type block plan experience with no days off. Each of the 14 online days featured a new topic, with a virtual exercise to complete. Overall, it took more than 30 students, nine instructors, the field station director and countless administrative staff from South Dakota Mines and Board of Regents for the State of South Dakota to make this course a successful reality. Having served first- hand as an instructor, for several of us it was ~80-200 hours to deliver one online module and many more to complete the field phase of the hybrid course. Many would say, “Why do this if it clearly took a large budget to deliver?” Simple. We did it for our students. We felt we could make a small contribution by helping them finish their undergraduate degrees and get out of school and onto their careers.


Many may not recognize the amount of consideration it takes to lead a hybrid course like this. The online course was fairly standard, except for the fact that we purposefully overloaded the course so as to keep students busy at home, in quarantine, for the 14 days prior to the start of the in-person field course. The logistics from here got a bit more


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the passengers. If a student or instructor were to become symptomatic at any time during the camp, we had plans to place the entire cohort under quarantine mea- sures based on the guidance of relevant government and health authorities.


All campus dining was located in the cafeteria at the Surbeck Center. Students were to keep 6-ft distancing at all times, were served by staff in order to eliminate possible contamination from touching anything. Dining tables were spaced with only one person per table, with most facing toward the door. A bit unconventional, but it worked. Masks were to be worn at all times, except while eating. One of the nice things about


field camps grow to accommodate pent up demand from the height of the pan- demic. Thirdly, we feel that more camps may go to this hybrid model, since it is a nice compromise and represents about the length of time a camp can run at full throttle without testing the ultimate limits of the participants’ durability and endurance (think Colorado College block program again). Further, online portions of courses are not as costly nor otherwise prohibitive to students who may not feel as comfortable in the outdoors, or who have family and job commitments that prevent them from traveling for extended periods during the summer. We remain sanguine, if not optimistic,


...we feel that more camps may go to this hybrid model, since it is a nice com- promise and represents about the length of time a camp can run at full throttle without testing the ultimate limits of the participants’ durability and endurance (think Colorado College block program again).


complicated. For the field camp, we split the students into 10-person cohorts to prevent mixing of the student body during the course. Each cohort had two full-time instructors. On field days, vans consisted of five students and one instructor (that was also the driver). We drove with the windows down (even in the rain), masks on, with air condi- tioning on anything less than max to prevent recirculation. But before loading the vans, forehead temperature checks were taken (see photo upper right – in this case, we had to expand our skillsets to mimic some of the work performed by physicians). Following commutes to and from the field sites, the instructors sprayed disinfectant on all internal and external surfaces that were touched by


www.aipg.org


working in the field was that we could eat our prepared brown bag lunches on hilltops overlooking the beautiful Black Hills every day we were in the field. It’s during these times that we have another reminder that we’re thankful we’re field geologists.


Based on our benchmark hybrid course during the pandemic (as far as we know, there are exceedingly few other field programs that have attempted this model this year), we forecast three main scenarios for undergraduate field-based education. First, we may see that many field camp programs cease to operate in the coming years as more and more geology courses, and courses in general, go online – especially if COVID-19 goes endemic. Secondly, we may see that


that field camps will actually grow over the next few years to accommodate the students who couldn’t take field camp during the pandemic.


So where do we go from here? While field-based education may seem only fit for the geosciences and other natural sciences, we believe this model may work well across undergraduate and graduate disciplines (elite universities including Stanford and Rice mentioned this was in their repertoire of options) – even corporate educational retreats. Some of our instructors also teach in vari- ous industry sectors including oil and gas and mining. Those classes, too, all employ various methods of online course delivery now, including Zoom, Microsoft Teams, etc.


Jan.Feb.Mar 2021 • TPG 13


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