In summer 2020, we worked with the British Ecological Society to create an online Summer School for undergrads interested in ecology. This would usually be a week-long residential experience, so we wanted to make the online version as fun and sociable as possible, while trying to avoid participants getting “Zoom fatigue” from back-to-back video calls...
We used Moodle as a low-cost platform and created a mixture of synchronous and asynchronous activities, including: a discussion forum where students could get to know each other, Padlet discussion boards where they could share photos and drawings on particular topics, and links to live Zoom sessions where they could talk to experts and each other. We also ran a training session for the key members of the BES team on how to use Moodle.
When the Summer School launched, it was great to see the students engaging in real time, uploading photos of specimens and commenting on each others’ finds! The feedback was incredibly positive too:
100% felt participation increased their knowledge and skills.
100% felt the summer school positively increased their awareness of ecology careers and networking skills.
100% rated Moodle as Very Good or Good.
In their comments, students described the summer school as "really informative and engaging", "so much fun", and "... one of the highlights of my year. Despite being online, it has felt like a real ecology family and community has developed over the past week between the students."
“It was a pleasure to work with Leah and the team at White Bicycle Ltd during the development of the British Ecological Society Undergraduate Summer School 2020. The conversion of the residential field trip to an online learning environment was highly successful, in large part to the guidance from Leah and the interactive elements created using online platforms. Feedback from students was excellent and would highly recommend.” - Amy Padfield, Education & Engagement Manager, British Ecological Society