Methods

Research methods

Project goals boil down to describing current situations (curriculum, courses and undergraduate QES students’ prospects) then identifying and articulating recommendations for improving quantitative degree programs & the experiences of students pursuing those degrees.

Most QuEST project work involved researching existing literature, information sources and precedent at peer institutions, and gathering data using surveys, interviews or conversations with faculty, peers, colleagues and students. Valuable advice and several research reports were generously provided by UBC educational experts, mainly Carey Hunter at UBC’s CTLT – Academic Program Design and Renewal – and Kimberley Rawes at UBC’s Career Services. Resulting data sets and summaries of faculty discussions are summarized in tables on the Data sets, reports & faculty discussions page. Tools and resources created to help with student advising and to characterize current curriculum are listed with pointers on the tools and resources page. We also learned of approaches to curriculum review or renewal from UBC Precedent, especially reports of completed UPER projects, and lists of funded Advancing Education Renewal projects (no reports).

Sequence of project tasks

  1. Relevant information reviewed from activities prior to launching the QuEST project includes surveys involving students, faculty and alumni, and reports or notes from meetings & faculty conversations. See dated items in the reports and data sets page.
  2. Discussions withing EOAS prior to COVID are included as items in the reports and data sets tables. Between 2020 and late 2022, most faculty were overwhelmed by the challenges of teaching and running research programs during the global pandemic.
  3. Literature and useful web-hosted sources have been gathered as a Zotero collection owned by F. Jones but visible to public at https://www.zotero.org/groups/4680105/qes_curriculum/library. References cited throughout this QuEST project reporting website are on the references page.
  4. Information from seven peer institutions about their quantitative Earth science degree programs was compiled via email by C. Schoof, and from public information by C. Hunter. These data are discussed on the Department & Institutional Context page.
  5. Insights about societal demand for geoscientists in general and quantitative specialists (geophysicists, atmospheric scientists, etc.) are continually compiled by at least 10 different government or professional organizations. Organizations with selected specific pointers are listed on our About Quantitative Earth Science Professions page. A Departmental (EOAS) report from 2010 about geoscience hiring practices is also referenced.
  6. Demand for geophysics and geoscience degree programs across Canada and in other countries was also assessed using EOAS enrollment history, data from the Council of Chairs of Canadian Earth Science Departments, the literature about geoscience education and interactions with peers. Results are compiled on the Demand for geoscience & related expertise page.
  7. Students’ experiences within EOAS were investigated by survey and focus groups in spring 2020. Results provide insightful student perspectives.
  8. EOAS course syllabi, including course learning objectives were reviewed, assessed, and summarized to identify strengths, weakness and opportunities for improvement.
  9. A new EOSC 1xx course (likely on climate physics) targeting quantitatively minded 1st yr students has been discussed and some options proposed. A summary of deliberations to date was prepared and the options have been summarized as part of QuEST project recommendations.
  10. Enrollments and demographics in EOAS first year courses were obtained from UBC’s Planning and Institutional Research Office (PAIR) to learn about which students take these courses in terms of degree programs, year levels and their final grades. The summary report provides insights about who is taking EOSC/ATSC 1xx courses and how well they do.
  11. Detailed course dependency maps for EOAS quantitative courses only (i.e. not geology, biology, etc.) have been generated including prerequisite courses outside EOAS (such as math, physics and chemistry). The interactive pages start at here and observations about limitations and opportunities based on these maps are summarized on the Current Course Sequences page.
  12. The quantitative content that students are taught has been compiled here based on information provided by instructors (at least for courses for which relevant instructors responded to requests). Corresponding learning tasks have also been compiled and summarized on the Current EOAS Course Content page.
  13. The perceived current and future identity of EOAS was explored by conducting paired interviews with EOAS faculty. Interviews were conducted by C. Hunter from the curriculum support group at CTLT. Summary report was prepared and results incorporated into choices made about recommendations and resources.
  14. EOAS perspectives on balancing learning about fundamentals versus career preparation were explored by conducting individual interviews with faculty in summer 2022. Interviews were conducted by worklearn student C. Tai. A summary report was prepared and insights have been incorporated into recommendations and resources.
  15. Workshops at the annual Earth Educator’s Rendezvous conference were attended by FJ in July 2023, providing much insight from colleagues at other institutions about geoscience curriculum and especially regarding career preparation for geoscience students. Lessons learned and examples sited have been incorporated in QuEST outcomes.
  16. Resources for students and advisors were prepared during QuEST research and results preparation – see below. These actions taken could have been left as recommendations, but timing, availability of people and resources and potential for immediate benefits justified spending QuEST time on these actions in addition to the more constrained objectives of only preparing background material and recommendations.
  17. Showcasing student products, work or experiences was discussed with CTLT’s Web Strategy Manager, Novak Rogic. Results included several examples of student content that other units have explored, but the conclusion was that most ended up being unsustainable owing to time/energy required by faculty.
  18. Marketing materials for quantitative degree programs to support recruitment, outreach, and internal (eg. advising) purposes has received significant attention. Actions completed or underway are listed on the Marketing Activities page, while recommendations for further actions related to visibility, recruitment, outreach and advising are detailed on the Marketing Recommendations page.
  19. A worklearn student was to have been hired to pursue marketing initiatives (LinkedIn research, job markets, etc.) for summer 2023, however the student chosen ended up not having suitable temporary immigration status and this was discovered after the worklearn procedures for hiring were closed.
  20. Organizing, summarizing and clarifying recommendations has been the last step.

Resources for students and advisors

Materials prepared during the QuEST project are listed on the Tools and Resources page. These are intended to clarify expectations (eg for advising), support curricular discussions (eg. interactive curriculum maps),

  • A list of scholarships available to geophysics students.
  • A new mapping of EOAS courses onto the qualification requirements for professional registration. Liaison with EGBC has been established and the newly prepared “self check list” for students to map courses they take onto registration requirements will become official with EGBC probably by early 2024.
  • An advising tool (spreadsheet) to help students and advisors map course choices onto degree, FoS and EGBC requirements.
  • A new Canvas “course” or resource to support advising, career preparation and professional registration.
  • Current state of QES degree programs and courses, current demand for geoscience degrees and professions and the local departmental and institutional contexts have been characterized in several pages in the “Currently” section of QuEST documentation.
  • Reports about two aspects of curriculum renewal were prepared to provide background and justification for corresponding recommendations. These include (1) the what/why/how of capstone experiences in degree programs and (2) a brief literature review related to incorporating career preparation into geophysics & math courses.

Organizing recommendations

Preliminary thoughts about recommendations were accumulated as they occurred throughout the project period. Categories of recommendations were initially based on four “implementation levels”: courses, course sequences, degrees and department level. This option is not perfect as many recommendations involve several “implementation levels”. Similarly, organizing by project goals is also awkward since many recommendations address several project goals. Several recommendations involve implementation that spans EOAS degree specializations, even though they emerged as suggestions for ways of rejuvenating the specifically quantitative specializations.

As the data gathering phase wound down (winter-spring 2023), recommendations were re-articulated and classified to indicate implementation level(s), targeted project goal(s), urgency and costs. A table summarizes final choices for categorizing recommendations. Each numbered recommendation is “generic” in nature, and specific actions that could contribute towards addressing that recommendation are presented as a list on pages in the Recommendations section of QuEST documentation.

Next steps

Some thoughts are provided separately regarding “next steps” to follow up after the QuEST project results have been reviewed. See the next steps page.