Experiential Learning

Planning the Learning Objectives

Ensure that you have clear learning objectives for the field trip and an understanding of the specific skills or experience you want students to gain from the trip. Whilst the primary objectives are likely to be focussed on disciplinary skills and knowledge development – your trip may well include generic skills and affective (value-based) elements. Consider how you will evaluate that key objectives have been met.

Health and Safety

Consider safety risks associated with the trip and how to mitigate these. You will need to follow guidance from your school and the Occupational Health and Safety Service (OHSS) around risk assessment. Those involved in the trip will need to be briefed on safety aspects and have clear roles during the trip.

Budget and Logistics

Plan the budget and the logistics of the trip carefully. Consider transportation arrangements, accommodation (if necessary), meals, and any required permissions or permits.

Accessibility Considerations

Ensure the trip is accessible and inclusive for all your students. If students are not able to participate because of costs, health or disability what can you do to make sure they can meet the learning objectives. Virtual environments may have a role here and can be a useful tool in preparing the whole cohort.

Communication

Communicate the objectives to your students and make it clear to them how the trip is connected more broadly to their learning. Also, think about what you can do to familiarise them with the (potentially novel) environment in advance. For example, provide students with pre-trip materials, readings, or assignments so that they can maximise their learning opportunities.

Your role will vary depending on the nature of the trip and the capabilities of your students. In early stages, you may need to lead or scaffold observation/investigation tasks. You can do this by providing guided activities or assignments during the field trip to help students engage with the content and make meaningful connections. 

In later stages of your programme if students are undertaking independent work your role will be that of coach/mentor.

Journeys and transitions can provide useful times for questioning and reflection.

Provide opportunities for students to reflect and consolidate their learning and encourage critical thinking. Consider using the virtual experiences (see the guide below) to enhance their learning.

Every virtual tour is different, and planning it will depend on your learning objectives. The process of planning the virtual fieldwork can be defined in 5 steps. 

Defining the Learning Objectives

Defining the learning objectives will help you plan what do you want to achieve through virtual fieldwork. Identify knowledge and skills outcomes, and then outline the themes, concepts, or practical skills you want your students to explore. 

Researching Virtual Fieldwork Experience

You can start planning your tour by researching existing resources that align with your learning objectives. For example, you might want to explore Learning Science resources for virtual lab experiences, or find relevant webinars, videos, and interactive simulations to enhance your tour. 

Creating Your Virtual Experience

If you decide to create the virtual experience from scratch, you will usually need to capture the space (ideally with 360 camera). Connect the scenes and add interactivities in the selected tool. When capturing the space, consider:

• Camera placement - to minimise the blind spots (e.g. if a room has an L-shape, you might need more than one shot);
• Movement and the general "flow" - if you plan to capture e.g. a building, imagine how students will virtually move through the space to make sure you capture all the rooms and transitions between them.
• Lighting conditions or weather - make sure the space is sufficiently lit. If you need to shot over a couple of days, try to ensure the conditions are similar - so the weather doesn't change drastically when virtually moving through the space. 
• Using timer / remote - to make sure you are not in the shots, use a remote (most 360 cameras can be controlled by a smartphone app) or a timer setting. 

FMS TEL Community has more tips on immersive 360 images. Once you have your footage ready, select a tool to connect photos/videos, and add interactions. 

Embedding virtual fieldwork in curriculum

Plan carefully how to embed the experience in curriculum. Is it a preparation for a physical trip, or an alternative? Do they have to complete the virtual experience before visiting the lab, or do you want to ensure they can "revisit" the site after the physical tour?

Before the virtual fieldwork session, provide students with relevant background information, resources, or readings to familiarise them with the topic. Share the necessary instructions and access links with students in advance. During the session, guide students through the experience, encourage active participation, and facilitate discussions to enhance their understanding and engagement.

After the virtual fieldwork, allocate time for students to consolidate their learning. You can use quizzes (also embedded within the tour itself), discussions, or reflective journal to support this process.

Like with every content published to students, it is crucial to ensure virtual trips are accessible. There are many tools available to create virtual tours, however not all of them work on different devices and operating systems.

When planning and creating your virtual tour, (in particular selecting your tool), consider:

• students' access to the necessary technology to participate in the virtual fieldwork. Consider any potential barriers or limitations students may face (e.g. YouTube videos that can be embedded in virtual tours might not be accessed in some countries).
• whether the tool you intend to use allows adding text descriptions of each scene and image;
• availability of closed captions or transcripts in video and audio content;
• possible navigation with keyboard (some students may have motor disabilities or rely on alternative input devices that require keyboard navigation for accessibility).

There are many tools available to create virtual fieldwork. Some of them allow you to create a more advanced virtual reality experience, however might be costly and require technical expertise. Other tools have limited functionality, but are easier to use. 

H5P

For most virtual fieldwork, we recommend creating your virtual tour in H5P. H5P is an interactive content creation tool that can greatly enhance the virtual fieldwork experience. As it is centrally supported, Newcastle University colleagues can use it within Canvas. Virtual tours in H5P:

• are easy to create;
• can be embedded in Canvas so students have easy access to it;
• have digital accessibility features built-in (for example: text descriptions of all scenes; an option to add audio tract with audio description; keyboard can be used to navigate between hotspots and scenes
• can have quizzes, videos, text and audio embedded; if quizzes are used, they can feed to gradebook (the tour must be set-up as an assignment).

On the other hand, virtual tours in H5P have limited functionality; for example, they do not ensure a smooth, "walking through the scene" experience like e.g. Google StreetView.

Read instructions on Virtual Tours in H5P and visit the page on H5P.

Many labs take the form of "cookbook investigations" where students perform routine experiments that yield well-known results. However, this approach often stymies anticipation and curiosity, and offers little incentive to think or be creative. Where possible, effective laboratory environments should be learner-centred, with students playing an active role in building their own knowledge and understanding. Teaching staff should act as facilitators, and learning tasks should take the form of authentic problems that connect theory with reality, acting as triggers for self-directed investigations (either practically or through further research).

Importantly, the learning context should be complex and challenging, requiring higher-order thinking skills such as application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Taking a more enquiry-oriented approach, students could be asked to:

• observe a phenomenon, and then ask questions and devise a testable hypothesis or model
• carry-out an experimental strategy and gather data and evidence
• critically analyse their results, and refine approaches to enhance the quality of their data
• reach conclusions about the validity of their hypotheses
• decide whether more experiments are needed to answer the original questions
• if new questions have arisen during the course of the investigation, whether more experiments are needed to answer them
• communicate explanations and conclusions based on their evidence

Once you have identified your lab's main objectives and goals, you will need to turn these into intended learning outcomes. These learning outcomes define the skills a student will have acquired and will be able to do upon successfully completion the lab. They should be expressed from the students’ perspective and be measurable and achievable.

Laboratory classes are often timed to coincide with module topics, so that practical experiences mirror the theory. However, this isn't always achievable due to timetabling and physical lab constraints, and so extra efforts must be made to help students draw links between the two (both within the module and more broadly across the programme).

Three popular types of lab activity, and their design considerations, include:

• Demonstrations: used to illustrate a particular concept or theory, or to demonstrate a piece of equipment and how it works. These passive “show and tell” labs could be made more interactive by asking students questions to prompt creative thinking.
• Exercises: used to teach a particular skill or technique by requiring students to follow a step-by-step guide to obtain a known outcome. This approach that tends to focus on procedure rather than enquiry, and could be improved by including a motivational element of autonomy (e.g. giving students a choice, such as which tools to use, or which experiments to perform, to achieve the desired result).
• Structured enquiries: students are presented with a problem or research question to answer, and
  given a range of equipment/materials to choose from to solve that problem. This approach encourages personal ownership and fosters independent research and application of theory.

You can also try flipping your labs, and reversing the traditional laboratory experience. Students can complete important lab activities before a session and then again afterwards, leaving valuable contact time for hands-on experience. For example, students could read lab instructions or watch health and safety videos before they arrive at the lab, confirming their understanding through a quiz. Afterwards, they could complete knowledge check quizzes to demonstrate learning and achievement. Recorded lab videos and simulated lab experiments (such as those offered by Learning Science and Jove) can also help reinforce experiences before and after real-world experiences.

In laboratory-based teaching environments, instructors and demonstrators are seen as the most important factor affecting the student learning experience. Both need to know and review the lab's experiments before a session, plan clear explanations, and create questions to stimulate student thinking. In addition, it is the responsibility of the lab leader(s) to ensure that all safety requirements are followed.

Leading a laboratory session has particular challenges and opportunities that differ from those of a standard lecture or seminar. Instructors and demonstrators should seek to:

• Create lab assignments at least one week in advance
• Rehearse any procedures and experiments
• Make sure that your lab requirements are clear and feasible
• Check that the desired results are achievable in the time permitted
• Make sure any necessary resources and materials are available and ready
• Double-check that any lab assistance you require is in place
• Preparation, prior to the start of the lab, should also include becoming acquainted with the lab itself (i.e. where things such as lab materials and the first-aid kit are).

Instructors and demonstrators should also consider the following questions:

• Are you familiar with the lab requirements, and what is expected of students?
• Are you familiar with the materials and equipment needed?
• Have you made allowances for any special safety or accessibility considerations?
• How will you monitor student progress in the lab?
• Where might students run into difficulty completing their experiments?
• What kinds of questions should you ask to stimulate thinking and encourage deeper understanding of the experiment?
• If applicable, how will you help lab pairs/groups work together well?
• If applicable, how will you clearly communicate lab assessment criteria used in grading student work?