Collaborative Research: HSI Implementation and Evaluation Project: Expanding access to high impact practices using Virtual Field Experiences

Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park CA

Investigators

Abstract

With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI Program), this Track 2 project aims to determine if virtual field experiences (VFE) can enhance the ability of students to learn science skills and encourage them to pursue a science career. This work is critical because, although field learning is one of the highest-impact teaching practices, the capacity for instructors to provide field learning is limited due to cost and time. These limitations are particularly strong at community colleges and colleges that lack suitable field sites nearby. Moreover, conventional field learning may exclude students whose family or work obligations do not allow them to join a field trip outside of normal class time. Field locations also may not allow students with disabilities to fully participate. Existing research into VFEs shows that they can be as effective as in-person field experiences at improving content knowledge, but it is not known whether VFEs are similarly effective in training fundamental science skills, such as observation, or in positively impacting students' attitudes, such as their sense of science identity. This project will compare learning and attitudinal outcomes of introductory biology and ecology students following the use of virtual or in-person field experiences. The diversity of the three HSIs studied and the project's collaboration with the Virtual Field Research Coordination Network ensure the results will be generalizable. When completed, this project will offer guidance on how VFEs can bring field learning to more students, enhancing instruction in an equitable manner. Virtual field experiences are an established part of science education, with demonstrated positive impacts on content learning and student satisfaction. They also have practical advantages over in-person field learning, such as lower costs and greater accessibility. Yet important questions remain about whether they are as effective as in-person field learning in building students' scientific skills and inspiring non-cognitive outcomes like scientific identity. First, by constructing a virtual field experience that closely parallels an in-person one, the project will employ a quasi-experimental design to compare cognitive and non-cognitive changes pre- to post-experience between students in virtual and in-person conditions. The second experiment will use a pre-/post-experience design, without a comparison group, but will study outcomes from a virtual field experience that brings students to multiple sites across different ecosystems. Outcome measures in both experiments will include a combination of previously validated measures and content and science skills assessments that are specific to the project. By expanding field learning access, this project will directly benefit the students at the institutions studied. This project is funded by the HSI Program, which aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education, broaden participation in STEM, and build capacity at HSIs. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.