RAPID: Collaborative Research: Increased access to infrastructure for distance education in hydrologic science

2019冠状病毒病大流行导致美国大多数大学突然转向在线教学，全球许多大学也是如此。由于准备时间不多，水资源和水文学教授和讲师必须至少在2020年春季和夏季学期快速生成在线内容，这种格式将扩展到2020年秋季学期的可能性越来越大。与此同时，各机构和个别教师在获得在线交付和准备在线交付方面存在很大差异。在水文科学，我们预计准备过渡到在线教学和由此产生的学习根据程序的大小，机构，教师的经验和教学支持的可用性而有所不同。总的来说，由于这些关键的差异，水文教学很可能会分为“有”和“没有”。在应对COVID-19疫情从传统教育向远程教育过渡期间，平等获得关键支持和教学资源对于缩小这一差距并提供平等获得水文科学高质量教学的机会至关重要。因此，我们的目标是为应对COVID-19大流行，为水文科学的教师和最终学生提供教育基础设施和培训。该项目将实施六项关键活动来实现我们的目标，包括：（1）通过小组讨论和调查模板促进教师和学生之间的双向沟通;（2）通过CUAHSI的HydroShare平台实现课程材料的共享;（3）开发开源，数据驱动的教育资源;（4）开发水文科学客座讲座数据库;（5）开发水文科学课程数据库。（5）利用远程教育材料和平台进行社区培训和支持;（6）举办一系列讲习班，并编写一份关于水文科学远程教育的综合报告。这些活动的结果将是一个公平的竞争环境，为所有教师和学生提供水文科学方面的优质教育。此外，我们预期这些努力将培养水文科学的在线教育者社区，他们将开发和使用教育资源，这些资源将持续到目前的COVID-19大流行之后。最后，扩大使用远程教育资源支持正在进行的倡议，以扩大多样性，平等，和纳入水文科学由CUAHSI和HydroLearn平台分享本科教育材料。这个奖项是共同的，该奖项由地球科学部的水文科学和教育及人力资源项目资助。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估。

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a sudden shift to online teaching for most universities in the United States, and many globally. With little time to prepare, water resource and hydrology professors and lecturers must generate online content rapidly for at least the spring and summer semesters of 2020, with an increasing possibility this format will extend into the fall 2020 term. At the same time, there is large variation in access to and preparation for online delivery among institutions and individual faculty. In the hydrologic sciences, we expect preparation for the transition to online instruction and the resultant learning to vary based on program size, institution, instructor experience, and availability of instructional support. Taken together, there is a significant risk that hydrologic instruction will divide into “haves” and “have nots” as a result of these critical differences. Equal access to critical support and instructional resources during the transition from traditional to distance learning in response to the COVID-19 pandemic is critical to closing this gap and providing equal access to high quality instruction in the hydrologic sciences. Thus, our goal is to enable access to educational infrastructure and training for instructors, and ultimately students, in the hydrologic sciences in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This project will implement six key activities to achieve our goal including: (1) facilitating two-way communication between instructors and students through panel discussions and survey templates; (2) enabling sharing of course materials through CUAHSI’s HydroShare platform; (3) developing open-source, data-driven educational resources; (4) developing a guest lecture database for hydrologic sciences; (5) community training and support using distance education materials and platforms; and (6) hosting a series of workshops and producing a synthesis report on distance education in the hydrologic sciences. The result of these activities will be a leveled playing field for accessible, quality education to all instructors and students in hydrologic science. Moreover, we expect these efforts to foster a community of online educators in hydrologic science who will develop and use educational resources that will persist well beyond the present COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, the expanded use of distance education resources supports ongoing initiatives to expand Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion in the hydrologic sciences by CUAHSI and the HydroLearn platform to share undergraduate educational materials.This award was co-funded by the Hydrologic Sciences and Education and Human Resources programs in the Division of Earth Sciences.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.