Conclusion
This case study illustrates how a field course focused on in-person group projects relating to urban ecology can be transitioned to fully remote instruction, primarily using pre-existing online participatory science projects. While this strategy may not serve all field courses in terms of structure or content, the diversity of readily accessible participatory science projects is robust and continuing to increase. Additionally, the limited available evidence suggests that the remote offering of the course was similar to the traditional in-person offering in terms of general engagement and student appreciation. Indeed, students valued interpersonal interaction and outdoor field components more highly in the remote instructed quarter than under traditional in-person instruction.
Faculty wishing to replace in-person field activities with pre-existing, online participatory science projects may wish to consider the following when selecting and integrating a project. The questions listed below are drawn from conversations and experiences the instructional team had as they developed and enacted activities under remote instruction. While the relevance of each consideration may vary by course content, structure, and logistics, the instructional team found that considering these points greatly aided in selecting and integrating participatory science projects into the course.
In terms of the logistics of the participatory science project:
In terms of linking with course content and assignments:
There are many additional resources to assist faculty in strategizing incorporating participatory science projects into a remotely instructed course, such as the Citizen Science Association’s (https://www.citizenscience.org/) series of webinars on participatory science and higher education, all of which are available on the CSA YouTube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChTgtIf9BqiEpWiczvH0jbA). Additionally, several ‘warehouse’ sites exist for accessing a variety of participatory science projects, which illustrate the diversity of projects available in terms of content focus and structure of participation. These include sites such as Zooniverse (https://www.zooniverse.org/), Sci Starter (https://scistarter.org/), and CitSci.org (https://citsci.org/). SciStarter also recently released a field guide to participatory science projects geared towards a variety of age levels and content fields (Cavalier et al 2020).