Enabling student self-guided field expeditions in geoscience with the GeoXploration platform for mobile apps

Abstract

The pervasiveness of smartphones amongst the undergraduate population has been leveraged to deploy a student-centered learning platform that enables exploration of individual interests and empowers students to become their own fieldtrip guides. We describe an automated learning analytics platform developed by combining a set of readily available web applications with custom scripts to support student-guided experiential learning activities. The platform has been utilized in introductory geoscience courses to support smartphone submission of place-based learning extracurricular activities, available to approximately fifteen hundred undergraduate students. Six platform goals were developed to encourage engagement within these courses: build community, foster collaboration, minimize extra work for instructors, support changeable and flexible assignments, enable student accountability, and establish platform sustainability. The utilization of existing web applications, rather than development of an independent smartphone application, results in a platform that is more accessible and sustainable for long-term use by instructors with a familiar interface for students.