Online but not remote: Adapting field-based ecology laboratories for online learning

Abstract

Teaching ecology effectively and experientially has become more challenging for at least two reasons today. Most experiences of our students are urban, and we now face the near immediate and continuing need to deliver courses (either partially or wholly) online because of COVID-19. Therefore, providing a learning experience that connects students to their environment within an ecological framework remains crucial and perhaps therapeutic to mental health. Here, we describe how prior to the pandemic we adapted our field-based laboratories to include data collection, analysis, and interpretation, along with the development of a citizen-science approach for online delivery. This design is simple to implement, does not require extensive work, and maintains the veracity of original learning outcomes. Collaboration online following field data collection in ecology courses within the context of cities offers further options to adapt to student experience levels, resource availability, and accessibility, as well as bringing instructors and students together to build an open well-curated data set that can be used in ecology courses where no laboratories are available. Finally, it promotes an open collaboration among ecology instructors that can drive lasting conversations about ecology curriculum.

Keywords: data curation; field ecology; laboratories; online learning; open data collection; remote; undergraduate classes.

Figure 1

Four areas on campus that were used in the in‐person courses, exemplifying ecological diversity. a: Disturbed lawn, b: Wetland, c: Grassland, d: Forest

Figure 2

The left photograph shows a standard, commercially available, metal‐frame quadrat. On the right, a quadrat of equal size made with string and pencils as corner pegs

Figure 3

Small, colorful desert cups used as pan traps