Creating opportunities for undergraduates during COVID-19: An online seismology skill building workshop for a global community

Abstract:

The COVID-19 pandemic led to the suspension of many summer opportunities for STEM students. In response, the IRIS Education and Outreach program, in collaboration with Miami University, offered a free online seismology skill building workshop for undergraduates seeking to build scientific computing skills while working with seismic data.

Every other week for 14 weeks, a new Module with ~6 assignments was released to build skills with Linux, GMT, SAC, webservices, hypocenter location, Python, ObsPy, and Jupyter notebooks. While each Module had a due date, participants worked at their own pace with late finishes marked on a final performance report. To accommodate a large enrollment, an asynchronous tutorial approach to instruction in a course management system was used. Assignments consisted of 20-40 instructions and embedded questions to probe content and process understanding. Responses received immediate evaluation that included tailored feedback and incentive to correct wrong responses. This instructional approach turns a wrong answer into a learning opportunity and encourages participants to monitor their individual success [Sit and Brudzinski, 2017]. A predictable computing environment is critical for this instructional approach, which was achieved by providing a downloadable virtual machine. Two webinars per Module introduced content and provided coaching, with recordings available afterwards. Participants asked questions and discussed material with each other and instructors via Slack, averaging ~150 users and ~80 messages per day.

Workshop registration was overwhelming and global. Initially, ~750 undergraduates enrolled, representing >60 different countries. Participation declined, though not as severely as has been reported for MOOCs. Geoscience and geophysics majors made up ~75% of enrollment. An additional ~15% were Engineering, Physics, and Comp. Sci. majors . Prior experiences with Geophysics/Seismology varied: ~50% had a course while ~20% had independent research experience. About half had some Linux or GMT experience, ~25% had used SAC, and ~50% had either used or were familiar with Python.

We intend to report on student performance and perspectives and make recommendations on strategies for training the next generation of seismologists through future online workshops.