CUAHSI Virtual University: An inter-institutional framework for graduate education applied to the hydrologic sciences
Abstract
The hydrologic community is highly collaborative in research, but such collaboration is lacking in graduate education across institutions. This results in incomplete access to specialized classes in the hydrologic sciences, slower than necessary spread of research innovations to the next generation of hydrologic researchers and professionals, low efficiency in graduate training, and poor preparation of students for virtual collaborations. In 2017 and 2018 we piloted a framework in which each participating institution will be able to showcase the strengths of their faculty while simultaneously widening and deepening the selection of courses that are available to their research track MS and PhD students. Our inter-institutional community of post-graduate learners and educators in the hydrologic sciences was developed in partnership with the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of the Hydrologic Sciences, Inc. (CUAHSI). With support from CUAHSI, we developed and piloted CUAHSI Virtual University which consisted of synchronous online modules of nominally 1 unit of semester credit offered by faculty from nine participating institutions. Each module covered a highly specialized topic unlikely to be covered in depth at most institutions and was designed to facilitate interaction among the instructor and students. At each participating university, an instructor-of-record offered a 3-credit class "Advanced Topics in Hydrology" for graduate students, each of whom took a combination of three modules of their choosing. At the end of each module, the instructor provided both numeric scores based on evaluation of submitted materials and the de-identified class distribution of raw scores to the instructor-of-record at the students' home institution, who then assigned the final grade for students at that institution. After the first pilot of CUAHSI Virtual University, 96% of students and 100% of instructors said they would recommend this opportunity to others. Our goal is to further develop, implement, and evaluate this collaborative educational model and adapt it for long-term success and sustainability, as well as create a readily transferrable framework for other disciplines.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018AGUFMED51E0706L
- Keywords:
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- 0805 Elementary and secondary education;
- EDUCATIONDE: 0810 Post-secondary education;
- EDUCATIONDE: 0815 Informal education;
- EDUCATIONDE: 0840 Evaluation and assessment;
- EDUCATION