Field-based education is interactive, hands-on, and based on real world experience and methodology, and during the COVID-19 pandemic, it has faced special challenges. As many institutions may struggle to maintain this vital component of geographic education, this resource paper aims to illustrate the impacts of the pandemic and provide some…

At a time when traditional fieldwork is coming under pressure, be it from shrinking budgets, reducing carbon footprints, increased concerns for personal safety or the desire to make field skills accessible to all, how do we ensure that the key skills of observation, data collection and landscape analysis can still be developed in our students?…

The article suggests an alternative teaching material to adapt to the current COVID-19 pandemic that impedes outdoor activities such as fieldwork or external visits in the university. The authors explore web documentary (hereinafter webdoc) as an option for asynchronous online teaching methods, an alternative to enable learning experiences. The…

There is much anecdotal evidence of the benefits of fieldwork, but a small amount of research has been carried out on the value of fieldwork for student learning. Existing studies have focused on analysing fieldwork in mostly disciplinary and national contexts and the effects of interdisciplinary fieldwork on student learning have not been fully…

Experiential learning is recognized as a high-impact educational practice. Fieldwork is an important component of the geographic tradition. When implemented using an inquiry-based approach, fieldwork can be a highly effective form of experiential education. However, many geography instructors are dissuaded from implementing inquiry-based fieldwork…

Fieldwork is a signature pedagogy in geography with widely understood and diverse benefits. Yet relatively little research exists on how to prepare pre-service geography teachers to become effective fieldwork practitioners and educators. This study developed and examined the pedagogical benefits of a fieldwork education module aimed at promoting…

International fieldwork programs that provide learning opportunities abroad have become increasingly popular in undergraduate education worldwide. Gaining insight into students' motives to engage in these programs can assist in formulating strategies for program development; however, few studies have investigated this topic. This study addresses…

This article outlines how Virtual Reality (VR) technologies, software and content can be used as a resource for teaching and learning in Geography. Drawing on the authors' first-hand experiences of using VR for undergraduate and postgraduate teaching, we explore firstly how VR can enhance the development of fieldwork observational techniques,…

The current study examined the impacts of a Japanese university's international fieldwork programs on developing the higher-order thinking skills and attributes of the students who participated in the programs in the Philippines and India. Through students' self-evaluation questionnaires, the study compared the reported scores of these skills and…

The extent of how mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, are seamlessly incorporated into the personal day-to-day life is not often considered by University instructors. Unfocused incorporation of mobile technologies into the classroom can de-emphasize intended learning objectives if students struggle to use the technology itself or by…

This paper explores the benefits, barriers and challenges of BYOD (Bring Your Own [mobile] Device) in fieldwork teaching through the views of Higher Education practitioners who have and have not used BYOD in fieldwork. While the use of BYOD has been explored within classroom settings, there are few studies on the use and impact on BYOD in…

This article reports on a problem-based learning (PBL) fieldwork activity carried out by geography education students on the Mooi River in the North West province of South Africa. The value of doing practical fieldwork using a PBL approach in the training of geography teachers was researched by means of an interpretative multimethods approach.…

University students often cite field experiences as some of their most important and memorable. Yet research shows that field trips are on the decline in many colleges and universities; this shift may impact geography courses that are traditionally field based. Often cited is the problem of instructor time, increased enrollment, and concerns over…

Field experiences continue to be a hallmark of a geographer's education and, for that matter, reeducation, as we all strive to remain current in the real world. Academic geographers beginning their ascent towards tenure and promotion might consider augmenting their portfolios with materials emerging from field teaching and learning activities.

Providing cost-effective, hands-on field-based experiences to large cohorts of undergraduate students provides a core challenge for effective teaching and learning. This grand challenge is tackled through the construction of an exemplar outdoor learning environment within the Environmental Change Outdoor Laboratory (ECOLAB): Birmingham Bog (BB).…