Location
Legends Room
Event Website
http://uenr.warnercnr.colostate.edu/
Start Date
3-23-2012 10:15 AM
End Date
3-23-2012 10:50 AM
Description
When the possibility of incorporating the virtual classroom into a natural resources curriculum is broached, faculty members often will argue that this approach to education doesn’t make sense for a discipline in which future professionals need to walk away from their computers, at least occasionally, and go outside. Similar discussions with colleagues at our own university, and with faculty at other institutions involved in the Natural Resources Distance Learning Consortium, caused us to wonder how and how often field experiences are actually incorporated into both non-virtual and virtual classrooms. We searched the employee directories of 294 U.S. universities to find faculty members currently teaching wildlife, fisheries, or forestry courses. Over 1,150 individuals were invited to participate in a study designed to provide insight into the how natural resource topics are being taught today, including: which universities have added virtual courses to their natural resources curriculum; whether university faculty include field experiences in their face-to-face and/or online undergraduate and graduate classes; and what types of virtual education technologies, if any, are being used as part of the field exercises for traditional and online classes.
Outside Inside: A Survey of Field Activities in the Virtual and Non-Virtual Natural Resources Classroom
Legends Room
When the possibility of incorporating the virtual classroom into a natural resources curriculum is broached, faculty members often will argue that this approach to education doesn’t make sense for a discipline in which future professionals need to walk away from their computers, at least occasionally, and go outside. Similar discussions with colleagues at our own university, and with faculty at other institutions involved in the Natural Resources Distance Learning Consortium, caused us to wonder how and how often field experiences are actually incorporated into both non-virtual and virtual classrooms. We searched the employee directories of 294 U.S. universities to find faculty members currently teaching wildlife, fisheries, or forestry courses. Over 1,150 individuals were invited to participate in a study designed to provide insight into the how natural resource topics are being taught today, including: which universities have added virtual courses to their natural resources curriculum; whether university faculty include field experiences in their face-to-face and/or online undergraduate and graduate classes; and what types of virtual education technologies, if any, are being used as part of the field exercises for traditional and online classes.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cuenr/9thBiennial/Plenary/5
Comments
Citation: Lindsey, KJ, Bush, R. 2012. Outside Inside: A Survey of Field Activities in the Virtual and Non-Virtual Natural Resources Classroom. UENR 9th Biennial Conference. http://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cuenr/9thBiennial/Plenary/5/