Adapting a Large Format Earthquakes and Society Course for Pratical and Engaging Online Learning

"Earthquakes in Your Backyard" is an introductory college-level earth science course that has been taught at UC Berkeley for 10+ years. The course covers topics ranging from fundamental earthquake science to secondary hazards to personal safety, with a particular emphasis on the earthquake hazard on campus. In recent years, course enrollment has spanned 250-450 students per semester, with a hybrid in-person/online version offered for the first time in fall 2019. This year, in response to COVID-19, the course moved entirely online. This necessary change of formats also provided an opportunity to fundamentally rethink pedagogical elements of the course to better serve two primary learning objectives: helping students build a lasting scientific knowledge base and arming them with the skills required to advance earthquake safety in their homes and communities. By delivering lectures via pre-recorded video segments that can be watched anytime, we were able to `flip the classroom' and use the usual lecture periods for small-group discussions designed to help students develop verbal literacy around earthquake science. With student diversity and learning styles in mind, we increased the scope of the assignments and delivered them in a variety of formats, from online to hands-on to collaborative, while de-emphasizing what were previously high-stakes exams. We grew our most practical assignments, ones which guide students through taking real steps to mitigating disaster risks at home. To increase our ability to reach as many students as possible, we utilized the Learning Management System, Canvas, to its fullest to provide a one-stop-shop, accessible online environment and developed efficiency-oriented rubrics. It is our hope that these updates have not only provided a quality, useful educational experience for students during the pandemic, but can carry the course forward indefinitely as an easily scalable, compelling online course offering.