Abstract

Geoscience courses, such as geology and geomorphology, require not only classroom lessons and laboratory exercises, but field trips as well. However, the COVID-19 restrictions did not allow the prosecution of most planned field trips, and an alternative needed to be developed. The use of virtual field trips is one such alternative. Through them, one can not only visit any area of interest, but prepare themselves for any actual educational or exploratory field trip as well. Even though they do not, and should not, substitute any physical visit of a site of interest, they have many advantages when combined with a "live" field work, in comparison to a field trip for which no preparation has been made. Through this research, we compare the advantages and disadvantages of both virtual and real educational field trips based on the opinions of our students. We thus performed a virtual navigation on the island of Naxos, Cyclades (Aegean Sea, Greece) for a series of virtual field trips, which took place during webinars in the framework of Erasmus+ CIVIS. The virtual fieldtrip was also presented to the third-year students of the Faculty of Geology & Geo-environment, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, in the framework of the obligatory course of Geomorphology. Upon completion, all participating students were asked to fill in a questionnaire in order to evaluate the contribution of virtual field trips to their education regarding geomorphology and state their opinion as to whether they can supplement and/or substitute actual field trips. Most of them stated that virtual field trips can aid, but not substitute the actual field work. Most students mentioned that they would attend another virtual field trip in the future, both as an alternative to classroom lessons and as a means of preparation for an actual field trip, but not in order not to attend the actual one.

Highlights

  • Geoscience courses, such as geology and geomorphology, require classroom lessons and laboratory exercises, but field trips as well

  • Photos, videos and maps can be utilized, aiding the comprehension of the geological and geomorphological processes (e.g. Stainfield et al, 2000). Among their advantages over actual field trips is the ease of their usage, as they can be attended by anyone who has a corresponding device, such as a computer, cellular phone or tablet, as long as it is connected to the internet (Çalışkan, 2011)

  • It is worth mentioning that 35.1% of those who had attended another 240 virtual field trip before were the students of Geomorphology, given that another virtual field work had taken place shortly before this one (Evelpidou et al, 2021b)

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Summary

Introduction

Geoscience courses, such as geology and geomorphology, require classroom lessons and laboratory exercises, but field trips as well. One can study for instance any observable superficial feature, such as the drainage network, the landforms, the coastline and the relief itself and make any geological and geomorphological notes before visiting an area of interest, as well as choose several sites to be visited when the actual field trip takes place (Gilmour, 1997; Stainfield et al, 2000; Cliffe, 2017). This means that, even though they cannot or should not substitute an actual field work, virtual field trips can be utilized as a means of preparation

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