Unexpected shift to introductory soil field activity at home: Teacher and student experience

Abstract

AbstractIntroductory soil science courses are an important part of the undergraduate curriculum in agriculture, environmental sciences, and natural resource management and traditionally include an in‐person laboratory where students acquire both hands‐on learning and practice important skills. This all changed when all classes quickly transitioned to completely online because of the COVID‐19 pandemic. The objective of this paper is to document student and instructor experiences transitioning two field‐based labs into asynchronous, online distance labs and evaluate students’ performance in an introductory soil science lab course. Two lab sessions were modified so that students could complete them from home using household equipment and pre‐lab instruction was delivered using online videos. After the course, student performance on learning objectives for each lab, evaluated using rubrics, and student grades were analyzed. Students performed well on soil color and texture but struggled with new concepts like identifying landscape positions. Students were able to practice hands‐on skills and learn more about soils near their homes. The lessons learned from the experience were that students need to submit photos or maps to document their lab exercises and to be used in grading and verification, to ensure that students have equipment and tools they need to complete the labs, and frequent feedback or communication during laboratory exercises is needed.