Managing disruptions and dilemmas in online geoscience instruction during the early 2020 COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic differentially disrupted daily activity in higher education during the spring of 2020, with ramifications for geoscience instructors’ teaching practices. Though facing similar challenges in this transition to many faculty nationwide, disciplinary specific coursework, such as field work and field trips to observe geological structures and processes posed unique challenges. To better understand this phenomenon, we surveyed and interviewed geoscience instructors about their lived experiences during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. We identify dilemmas faculty experienced as they transitioned from in-person to online teaching. Findings give us a glimpse into faculty respondents’ thinking about teaching as they managed their work and personal responsibilities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Survey participants discussed teaching most frequently in their responses (38.6%) and 95.4% of survey participants expressed a teaching dilemma in their survey responses. In coding these dilemmas, we expand on Windschitl’s dilemmas framework of conceptual, pedagogical, cultural, and political dilemmas to include personal and technological dilemmas. Results indicate that faculty experienced personal dilemmas most frequently (82.7%). Online resources and discussions with faculty within and beyond their institution were most helpful in supporting the transitions to online learning. Participating faculty specifically mentioned communities designed to support geoscience teaching and learning, such as those facilitated by the NAGT, indicating the importance of discipline-specific faculty learning. We believe these insights can help understand what supports faculty in making and navigating future instructional changes and offer suggestions for faculty and administrators.