Hi, I'm Eliza Richardson and you can find out more about me by reading the "Meet the Author" page, next.
I'm Dr. Eliza Richardson and I wrote EARTH 501. I am also the lead faculty member for the Master of Education in Earth Sciences program. I am an associate professor of geosciences at Penn State's University Park campus and I am also a fellow of the Dutton Institute for e-Education, housed in Penn State's College of Earth and Mineral Sciences.
Like Bruce Springsteen, I was born in New Jersey. Unlike The Boss, however, I grew up in Blacksburg, VA. I also spent time living in the Caribbean and England because my parents were academics and sometimes traveled for their research. I received my undergraduate degree in 1996 from Princeton University where I majored Geology & Geophysics and minored in East Asian studies. I also manned the goal for Princeton's women's waterpolo team for four years. I went to graduate school at MIT and finished my Ph.D. in 2002. My doctoral research was in seismology; I managed several stints of field work at about 3 km below the ground in South Africa studying the earthquakes induced by gold mining.
My current research involves the physics of earthquake sources. I am interested in how earthquakes begin, what makes them stop, and what happens along a fault while the earthquake is going on. When scientists can describe precisely these three parts of an earthquake, we'll be a lot closer to predicting them or at least mitigating the damage they cause.
During the academic years 2007-2008 and 2014-2015 I spent research sabbaticals with my husband, who is also a geophysicist at PSU, at the Institute for Geophysics and Volcanology in Rome, Italy. This was an incredible opportunity for us to collaborate on research projects with Italian colleagues. However, by far the most rewarding part of the experience was exploring Rome with our five kids. As of this writing one of them is a Penn State graduate, the next is an undergrad at the University of Arizona, and the other three are still at home.
Many people point to convenience for the students as a reason to offer a program of study in the online environment; as worthy as that is, I feel that this format is also convenient for me. Since I have a career and five kids, it is important that no matter who threw up in the night, who forgot their lunch, or who totaled the car (all of which have happened) I can still teach this course because we are not tied down to a specific time and place to meet and exchange ideas. I'm looking forward to the semester with you!
Before we begin our semester of study together, it is important that you review all of the material in this Course Orientation, as it will not only prepare you to be successful in this course, but it will also help you prepare for the quiz at the end of the orientation. You must get a score of at least 90% on that quiz to be able to submit assignments later in the course ... and the answers are all contained in this orientation and the syllabus!
This course orientation will complement and expand on the information provided on our syllabus. But you should read the syllabus, too. Go ahead and do it now. A link to the syllabus is located in the menu bar.
You should complete the Course Orientation by the Tuesday following the first full week of classes, 15 Jan 2019. Due dates in this class are almost always on Tuesdays.
The table below provides an overview of the requirements for the Course Orientation. For further assignment details, keep reading the orientation.
Activity | Details | Due Date |
---|---|---|
Forward your PSU e-mail | Students new to PSU might want to do this | 15 Jan |
Set up your Canvas profile | If you are new to Canvas | 15 Jan |
Introduce yourself and meet the rest of the class! | Canvas: Find the Course Orientation module and click the Meet and Greet discussion to enter | spanning 7-15 Jan |
Take the Course Information Quiz | Canvas: Find the Course Orientation module and click Course Information Quiz to take the quiz. | 15 Jan |
If you have any questions, please post them to our Questions? discussion forum (not e-mail). You can get to the Questions? discussion forum in Canvas. It is up near the top in a module called "Stuff Pertaining to the Whole Course." I will check that discussion forum daily to respond. While you are there, feel free to post your own responses if you, too, are able to help out a classmate.
On the following pages you will find important information about the course structure, requirements, scheduling, and technical requirements and assistance...all of which you'll need to know in order to pass the course. Remember, you are also responsible for the information located on our course syllabus (linked from the menu).
EARTH 501 will be conducted entirely on the World Wide Web. There are no set class meeting times, but you will be required to complete weekly assignments. Registered students in this course will need to navigate between several environments in the World Wide Web. These include:
The instructional materials in this site consist of 6 lessons, each including multiple pages of text, graphics, and activities. Activities prompt readers to explore selected Web sites, to download data and/or software, or other adventures. This web site is part of the Open Educational Resources initiative of Penn State's College of Earth and Mineral Sciences and access to it is unrestricted.
Canvas is a secure course management system used at Penn State. In Canvas, registered students submit assignments, receive feedback from me, take online quizzes, check assignment scores and course grades -- basically everything that involves the security that PSU's lawyers insist upon which is mainly anything graded, anything with a copyright, anything that identifies you as a student in this course.
Students who register for this Penn State course gain access to assignments and instructor feedback, and earn academic credit. Only students who are registered for this course will have access to the Canvas space for this course. Information about this course and the online Masters of Education in Earth Sciences [1].
You will use your PSU credentials to access the articles I have put in e-reserves for this course. A link to the library is in the Resources drop-down menu in this website. You can also get to the library's main page [2] directly.
There are 5 content lessons that will be completed at a rate of approximately 2 or 3 weeks per lesson. Lesson learning activities will be in the form of background reading and discussion that outlines a current scientific problem or debate, the collection and manipulation of appropriate data, and the assessment of the results of this work. By doing this, you will simultaneously become familiar with the content as well as the practice of science. You will also participate in online discussions about how to teach this content to specific secondary school audiences. Following the 5 lessons, you will complete a capstone project (Lesson 6) in which you will construct a teaching plan based on the topic of your choice.
The main priorities in Lesson 1 are to learn a bit more about you and your background in Earth Science, to make sure we are all comfortable creating plots electronically (which you will need to do for some of the subsequent course assignments), and to discuss a couple of short articles together as a group.
The figure below, from NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, shows global maximum wave amplitudes from the tsunami caused by the great 26 December 2004 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake. In Lesson 2 we will analyze tide gauge records from this event.
The results of this analysis will inform our subsequent discussion of the potential for tsunami risk in the Atlantic Ocean. Finally, we will determine the advantages and disadvantages of developing a tsunami warning system in the Atlantic Ocean.
The figure below shows a simplified geologic cross-section of an impact crater in Chicxulub, Mexico. This crater is thought by most scientists to be the impact crater resulting from the asteroid collision that caused the mass extinction event at the end of the Mesozoic era about 65 million years ago. In this lesson, we will discuss prevailing hypotheses for this and other mass extinction events during Earth's history. We will also discuss the effect on evolution/diversification of life following mass extinction events.
The photo below, taken in 1904, shows damage from the sequence of New Madrid, MO, earthquakes that occurred in 1811-12. You can see one side of fault trench or "fissure" near the banks of St. Francis River, Clay County, Arkansas. In this lesson, we will learn about the 1811-12 earthquake sequence and discuss the controversy regarding the extent of seismic risk in the central United States today. We will learn how to estimate earthquake recurrence interval using a variety of methods.
In this lesson, we will investigate a combination of several different datasets and models in order to analyze the extent to which global climate is affected by human activity. We will discuss the short and long term consequences of global warming and try to quantify the uncertainties inherent in scientific measurements.
EARTH 501 will rely upon a variety of methods to assess and evaluate student learning, including
to provide opportunities for me to gauge your progress and ability to articulate key concepts. I will assign weekly readings and ask you to discuss and debate the significance of these readings within the larger framework of the topic of the current lesson. The discussions will also be a venue for you to get help or give help when performing the data analyses.
that require you to collect and interpret datasets.
that will be used to evaluate your knowledge and skills through the production of a learning module that you, in turn, will be able to use to teach course concepts to your own students.
Penn State uses an online course management system called Canvas to deliver most of its online courses to registered students. Even though the course content for Earth 501 is open and available without having to go through a secure system, registered students need a secure way to submit assignments, receive grades, read copyrighted papers from the library, and generally make Penn State's lawyers happy. That's why I have to use a separate interface for the parts of the course to which only registered students have access.
I made the default home page in Canvas the "Modules" page on which you will find a list of this course's lessons in order. If you expand the list you will get a link that goes to the website where the content lives, and you will also see links to the discussions and assignments that you need to turn in for each lesson. It is probably easiest to keep two tabs open when you are working on this course: one tab for the course content material, and one tab for Canvas.
If you have any problems with Canvas, you should tell me right away and also contact the IT Service Desk [9].
Following is information about Canvas, Penn State's Learning Management System (LMS). In Canvas, registered students may consult course calendars; communicate with instructors, teaching assistants, and fellow students; submit assignments; receive feedback from the instructor and teaching assistant; take online quizzes and surveys; and check assignment scores and course grades. A link to Canvas appears on every page.
If you are new to Canvas, it is strongly recommended that you complete the PSU: Canvas Student Orientation [10].
You may also want to review the Canvas Student Guide [11] to acclimate yourself further, and watch the following video:
Credit: Canvas Overview for Students [12] from Canvas LMS [13].
In this video, you will learn how to navigate your Dashboard, courses, and Global Navigation Menu in Canvas.
When you log in to Canvas, the first thing you see is the Dashboard, which provides a high-level overview of your current courses. The Dashboard can be displayed in three different viewing options.
Card View displays a course card for each of your favorite courses. Each card can include clickable icons for Assignments, Announcements, Discussions, and Files. List View displays an agenda view of graded items from your courses, as well as any non-graded items your instructors designate for a course To Do list. You can also add your own items to the agenda.
Recent Activity View displays a stream of recent notifications from all your courses, including announcements, conversations, assignments, discussions, and peer reviews.
You can also access the course grades page from the Course Card and Recent Activity Views by clicking the View Grades button. The Grades page displays grades for all of your courses. To view grade details for a specific course, click the name of the course.
To view a course, click the Courses link in Global Navigation and click the name of the course you want to view. The course opens to the home page set by your instructor.
You can use the Course Navigation links, breadcrumb navigation, or the sidebar to navigate to different areas of the course.
The sidebar includes a To Do list that displays links to announcements and other items that require action in your courses, such as assignments, quizzes, discussions, and pages.
If your course includes student groups, you can view a list of your groups in Course Groups. Click the group name to view the group homepage. View recent assignment feedback in Recent Feedback. Click the assignment name to view feedback in the Submission Details page.
Canvas displays a Global Navigation Menu that gives you direct access to your courses and other areas of Canvas.
Click the Account link to log out of Canvas, specify your notification preferences, upload and view personal files, modify your user settings, manage ePortfolios, obtain a QR code to log in to the Student app, view global announcements, and enable a high-contrast user interface.
Click the Dashboard link to return to the Canvas Dashboard. Click the Courses link to quickly access your favorite courses and view a list of all your courses. Click the Groups link to access groups in which you are enrolled or view a list of all your groups.
Click the Calendar link to view your personal calendar and course calendars. Click the Inbox link to view and send messages to your instructors and peers within Canvas. Click the History link to view a list of course content and content areas you have viewed within the last three weeks.
Click the Help link to access help resources for your institution.
Thanks for watching this Canvas overview video. To learn more about Canvas, ask questions, or engage with other Canvas users, please visit community.canvaslms.com.
The Canvas Help Center provides extensive, up-to-date documentation [14] on making sure your computer is configured properly for Canvas. Failure to follow these recommendations may result in significant issues while viewing materials, taking assessments, and using drop boxes. Use of unsupported browsers is at your own risk.
Just like on-campus students, as a Penn State student you have a wealth of library resources available to you!
You can...
Where possible, I have made links directly to the pdf files of the published articles that make up the required reading for this course. They are linked from the Canvas discussion boards instead of from the course content because the articles are copyrighted and only registered students get direct access to them.
For optional readings, you can access the articles via library e-reserves. To get there, click the "PSU Library" link in the Resources drop-down menu of this website. You will be taken to the home page for Penn State's Libraries. Click "Course reserves" in the box that says "Start Here". Then, type Earth 501 in the space that says "Search For:" and click the button that says "By Course Number."
How you define and achieve success in an online course like this one? It depends on your goals and perspective. A 19-year-old undergraduate student who registers for an online course in the hope of earning an easy “A” is unlikely to be successful, no matter how adept he or she may be with information technology. However, Palloff and Pratt observe that “in general, distance education has been applied to and seen as most successful in the arena of adult and continuing education” (Palloff and Pratt 2001, p. 109).
“Much of the research done on successful students in distance education programs suggests that students who are attracted to this form of education share certain characteristics, including that they are voluntarily seeking further education, are motivated, have higher expectations, and are more self-disciplined. They tend to be older than the average student and to have a more serious attitude toward their courses, education, and learning. They are what most would consider to be nontraditional students.” (Palloff and Pratt 2001, p. 109)
This is not to say that younger students can’t succeed in online classes. Indeed, “most [undergraduate] students today are older, are working, and need more flexible schedules” (Palloff and Pratt 2001, p. 109). The question is, assuming that a student is motivated to get the most out of an online class, and that the class is well-designed and led by attentive instructors, which attitudes and behaviors increase the student’s chance of having a satisfactory experience?
Swan and colleagues (2000) surveyed approximately 3,800 students enrolled in 264 online courses through the SUNY Learning Network. Of the 1,406 responses received, the researchers analyzed data associated with 73 courses for which there was a 40 percent response rate or greater. Among their findings were statistically significant correlations between student satisfaction and (a) perceived learning gains; (b) interaction with instructors; and (c) interaction with fellow students. Additionally, respondents who rated their own level of activity in online classes as high also tended to report higher levels of satisfaction.
Research results like these, along with lessons learned in our more than ten years of experience in distance learning, leads us recommend the following three study habits that will maximize your chances for success in your online class:
Bransford, J. D. et al (Eds.) (2000) How People Learn: Brain, Mind, and Experience. Washington, DC: National Research Council.
Chickering, A. W., and Gamson, Z. F. (1987) Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education. AAHE Bulletin, 39(7) 3-7.
Gibbs, G. (1999) Planning Your Students’ Learning Activities. In McKeachie, W.J. (Ed.) McKeachie’s Teaching Tips, 10th Ed. Pp. 20-33. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Palloff, R. M. and Pratt, K. (2001) Lessons from the Cyberspace Classroom: The Realities of Online Teaching. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Swan, K. et al (2000) Course Design Factors Inflouencing the Success of ONline Learning. Proceedings, WebNet 2000 World Conference on the WWW and Internet. San Antonio TX, October 30-November 4.
Meaningful interactions among students and instructors are the hallmark of an successful online class. The two learning environments used in this Penn State course -- Canvas and Drupal -- support several kinds of communication, as described below.
Each lesson in this course involves one or more graded discussions in which we will "talk" asynchronously about a scientific paper pertaining to the lesson topic or about teaching/learning strategies that go along with the lesson topic. These discussion forums can be accessed inside Canvas.
There are also two ungraded forums that are permanently available to you in Canvas: Questions? and Random Thoughts. These are good for when you run into trouble with an assignment or something technical with the course, or if you feel like sharing ideas, articles you found, or other stuff that doesn't necessarily pertain to the focused graded discussion.
I use Canvas in this course to give you feedback and grades on your problem sets because it is secure and makes PSU's lawyers happy. Once I have graded a problem set, you can go back and look at it. You should see comments in the Canvas comment box as well as text I have written into your problem set, normally in green font.
The World Campus and Penn State will both use your PSU email account (e.g. abc123@psu.edu) for official communications. If you want to have your PSU email forwarded to another email account, please visit http://work.psu.edu [15]. Note that this is NOT THE SAME as specifying your email address in your Canvas system settings! If you set your PSU email to forward to another email address, then of course any email that is sent to your PSU address will go to the address you specify, but if you just set an address to forward to from Canvas then only emails originating inside Canvas will go to that other address, make sense? Maybe not, but trust me, I'm a doctor. Do both if you want to make sure, or else just get used to checking your PSU email account.
You can email your instructor directly or through Canvas if you need to talk about something you don't want the whole class to know about (Note this is eliza at psu.edu when Eliza teaches this class and mxh437 at psu.edu when Mike teaches this class). If you have a question about how to proceed on a problem set, or you want clarification of due dates, or something like that, it is better to post that to the Questions? discussion forum because then the whole class can profit from finding out the answer.
Now that you've had a chance to learn about the course and the online learning environment, I'd like to get to know you...and help you get to know each other!
We will use a Canvas discussion forum to post and read self-introductions. To access the discussion forum:
By now you hopefully have a much better idea of what this course, and the online course environment, will be like. Time to test your skills! Once you have reviewed all of the materials for the Course Orientation and read the syllabus, you will need to take the "Course Information Quiz" and pass it with a score of 90% or better in order to be allowed to submit assignments for this course. You can take the quiz as many times as you need to until you obtain at least a 90%.
Good luck!
You have reached the end of the Course Orientation! Double-check the to-do list on the Course Orientation Overview page to make sure you have completed all of the activities listed there before you begin Lesson 1. (To access Lesson 1, use the link in the "Lessons" menu.)
If you have anything you'd like to comment on, or add to, the course orientation materials, feel free to post your thoughts in the Questions? forum or the Random Thoughts forum.
Links
[1] http://earth.e-education.psu.edu
[2] http://www.libraries.psu.edu
[3] https://www.e-education.psu.edu/earth501/sites/www.e-education.psu.edu.earth501/files/file/max_global.jpg
[4] http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/tsunami/indo_1204.html
[5] https://www.e-education.psu.edu/earth501/sites/www.e-education.psu.edu.earth501/files/file/Chicxulub_drilling_hires.jpg
[6] http://www.webcitation.org/5VdFMykv2
[7] https://www.e-education.psu.edu/earth501/sites/www.e-education.psu.edu.earth501/files/image/NewMadridEarthquake_horse.jpg
[8] http://caglecartoons.com/viewimage.asp?ID={6C399578-5582-45A3-8E47-92F4BCCE81A6}
[9] https://it.psu.edu/get-support
[10] https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1780857
[11] https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-4121
[12] https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Video-Guide/Canvas-Overview-Students/ta-p/383771
[13] https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Video-Guide/tkb-p/videos
[14] https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-1284
[15] http://work.psu.edu
[16] https://psu.instructure.com/