31 Transforming Geoscience Education: Reimagining how we teach the Earth
This session will explore innovative and student-driven approaches to geoscience education. Contributions may focus on either design and implementation or research on evidence-based instructional strategies like active learning, project-based learning, field experiences, and others.
Tuesday, 10 March 2026
1:30 PM - 5:00 PM
RCC, 105
Changes in Undergraduate Student Engagement in Response to Comprehensive Content Development in Canvas – 2020 to 2026
Paper number: 31-9
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 3:45 PM – 4:00 PM
Authors
Abstract
Following the suspension of in-person class meetings in 2020 due to COVID-19, the author made efforts to improve upon the content delivery using their campus’s preferred online interface, Canvas, ultimately producing hundreds of individual pages incorporating further hundreds of self-designed, intuitively-styled dichromatic buttons, icons, and logos linked to lecture presentations, notes, review quizzes, labs, assignments, discussion sessions, supplemental materials, etc. These self-created page templates were first employed for regular course content delivery in Summer 2020, and then subsequently expanded for use in all seven of the author’s regularly-offered courses. While providing a degree of consistency across the curriculum, the templates were revised and modified for each course, allowing for unique aspects of each class to be highlighted, such as an array of study aids, self-recorded tutorial videos, and links to other course activities, problem sets, or external, supplemental content. From 2020 to 2023, the engagement with this ever-increasing volume of course content gradually improved on a per-student basis, with student activity persisting throughout each semester. Student feedback on these course pages was generally positive throughout this period, and the pages even received plaudits from University Canvas administrators. However, since 2024, the degree of per-student engagement has waned, with some especially-concerning drop-offs in CY 2025, in spite of efforts to increase the accessibility of course materials and encourage students to engage with the both the mandatory and supplemental course content. This may suggest an issue of content overload, or may reflect changes in students’ needs or expectations. Further revisions are proceeding, with hopes for improved outcomes in CY 2026 and beyond.
Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 58, No. 1
doi: 10.1130/abs/2026SE-411776
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