Optimizing Online Science Course Design: Sense of Place, Community, Active Learning, and Local Environments

To address the lack of face-to-face introductory geology courses offered at our state’s community colleges, we developed place-based online courses that incorporated active-learning strategies and student investigation of their local environments. Science content was related to the state through short, introductory videos that we filmed with a GoPro camera. Each unit also included a brief video interview with a scientist employed in the field. Through discussion boards, we developed an online community of learners with shared assignments’ results and local examples. Paired pre- and post-surveys documented students’ science learning gains, while content analysis of end-of-semester survey responses revealed that students found the online course design effective, and that they enjoyed learning about the science through their state. We propose this course design is transferable to other science content. Based on our results, we offer recommendations for successful online course design through consistent course structure, place-based science content, and active student engagement.