Digging into Soils on Earth & Mars: Insights into Developing Hybrid Soil Science Courses
Rebecca Lybrand
Friday, September 13th, 2024
9:00-9:45 am
Description
In this session, I will share my experiences revising traditional face-to-face courses into hybrid designs to free up class time for hands-on learning both in the field and classroom. Hybrid course materials were developed for two soil science courses to enable the integration of more field trips and active learning activities in classroom and field settings. The primary objective of this session will be to highlight faculty experiences with developing hybrid components for two soil science courses at UC Davis. The first course, Extraterrestrial Soils (Science & Society 005), is a lower division course with no pre-requisite requirements for undergraduate student enrollment. The second course, Soil Genesis (SSC 120), is an upper division course open to both undergraduate students and graduate students. This session will also integrate faculty insights into the timeline and process for developing hybrid content for hands-on science courses, including engaging in hybrid course content development through a series of iterative meetings with a team of Senior Instructional Design Consultants (Instructional Media & Creative Services). Student feedback from both courses will also be shared as part of the presentation as well as interactive digital media content produced by students through quarter-long student-led projects. The session will finish with advice and resources for faculty to reference who are also interested in developing similar course materials using the hybrid modality.
Access the presentation slides (PDF)
About the Presenter
Dr. Lybrand is an Associate Professor in the Department of Land, Air & Water Resources at UC Davis. Dr. Lybrand earned a B.A. in Biology from Whittier College; a M.S. in Soil and Water Science from UC Riverside; and a Ph.D. in Soil, Water & Environmental Science from The University of Arizona. Dr. Lybrand started as an Assistant Professor at Oregon State University in 2015 before moving her program to UC Davis in 2020. Dr. Lybrand specializes in pedology, soil mineralogy, and the study of soil-landscape relationships under contrasting environmental conditions.
