A Physical Geography Lab’s Online Transition: Student and Instructor Insights Using iGEO Video Games during the Pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic forced educational institutions around the globe to close or move to a remote format. This article focuses on the transition of an in-person undergraduate physical geography lab to online synchronous learning during the Fall 2020 semester. Findings suggest the importance of abundant learning materials as well as showing similar experiences across different groups of students. In addition, we captured the experiences of lab instructors over time. Ultimately, even as education transitions post-pandemic, these findings highlight the usefulness of extensive/intensive learning, and course flexibility in a synchronous, online, active-learning physical geography lab course.

Keywords:

• pandemic
• geography education
• gamification
• virtual field trips
• geovisualization

Disclosure statement

The authors of this research are not developers of the iGEO games and do not benefit monetarily from their use, only from the feedback from students and educators who relay their personal experience of using these games.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ryan Heintzman

Ryan Heintzman is an instructor in the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning at Arizona State University. His research interests include interactive geography pedagogy as well as the climate of the southwestern United States.

Aldo Brandi

Aldo Brandi is a Postdoctoral Research Scientist at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. He studies boundary layer dynamics in urban environments by means of numerical climate modeling.

Madeline Kelley

Madeline Kelley is a Post-Doctorate Research Associate in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of New Orleans. Her research interests include physical geography, geomorphology, GISc/RS, and sediment transport.

M. Colin Marvin

M. Colin Marvin is a PhD student in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Stanford University. He studies bedform patterns and sand grain surface textures to better understand the geomorphic and environmental histories of Earth and other planets.