Can Virtual Field Trips be used to prepare students for real fieldwork?

As a result of significantly increased class sizes, heightened safety consciousness, significantly increased health and safety regulations, and limited staff resources, a project was started in 2017 to investigate ways and means to improve the impact of field instruction to undergraduate students.

This allowed us to hit the ground running when COVID-19 hit the world, as the lock down regulations triggered a switch to teaching remotely. This significantly accelerated the development of our Virtual Field Trips (VFTs), in this case to be able to provide suitable field evidence for the students as group travel to the field was not possible, except the fourth year small groups.

VFT’s were therefore developed for use at first year, second year, third year and fourth year level of instruction.  In close collaboration with the instructor responsible for teaching the various courses, three different sets of VFTs were developed:

A set of four VFTs for the first year introductory Earth Sciences course, illustrating sedimentary, structural, and igneous features in outcrops as well as hand specimen. Three VFTs were used during practical teaching sessions followed by a test, after which the VFTs were available on-line for self-study. This was followed by the fourth, more comprehensive tour, which was used as an end of practical course test. Comparison of the two test results demonstrated a significant learning gain.

One multi outcrop tour was prepared to illustrate the features the field geologist needs to look out for when applying structural geology to slope stability assessment in an engineering geological setting in the context of raising an existing storage dam wall to increase the storage lake capacity. This lecture was followed by a test prior to the VFT after which the same test was applied sfter the VFT. Comparing the results of the two tests demonstrated that the learning gain increased significantly in accordance with the level of education of the participants.

Finally, a set of seven tours was built to prepare the fourth-year students prior to going to the field by showing them the various sedimentary features they were to visit in the field. Here we used video explanations on the outcrop, 3D LIDAR specimen and drone videos for the spatial aspect.  In this case the final report prepared by the students after the field excursion was compared with the results of the previous year’s class where no VFT was available and again we could demonstrate a distinct learning gain.

In the last case to show the sedimentological features in preparation for the real field trip,  we could demonstrate a positive impact on the outcomes of the field excursion, thus providing an affirmative answer to the question whether VFTs can be used to prepare students for fieldwork.