Students
at the University of New Orleans (UNO) recently took part in a
pioneering online geoscience course built on real-world data and
online interdisciplinary instruction.
“Coastal
Processes, Hazards and Society” was developed with a National
Science Foundation grant. Three UNO educators helped build the
course, which was overseen by Penn State University's Tim Bralower.
The course was offered
for the first time last fall.
“One
of the huge challenges for writing and teaching this course is how to
deliver online student-centered, active learning," Dinah
Maygarden, UNO director of Coastal Education, said. “These
materials are very different. They challenge the instructors and the
students to use real-world
data to explore different topics.”
Maygarden
helped develop the
class with UNO
associate professors
Ioannis Georgiou and Mark Kulp.
“Coastal
science presents a perfect opportunity to address human interaction
as we in south Louisiana are experiencing personally the consequences
of sea level rise and coastal land loss,” Maygarden said.
“It is a global issue, but there is a personal connection to it
that resonated with UNO students across multiple disciplines.”
Students
in the course covered
both typical geological subjects, like sea
level change, and human
factors, like
coastal engineering. But the course also challenged the class
to utilize
real-world data, such as shoreline erosion rates, to
come up with solutions to complex issues. For example,
the students might be
asked how a community can best plan
for an emergency
involving the
flooding of low-lying
areas with dense
populations.
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