E-Learning and the Geoscientist
Susan Smith Nash, Ph.D.
AAPG Director of Education and Professional Development
Editor’s note: Susan has extensive experience in geoscience e-learning. She provided the following article at the request of The Correlator
When Dave's company sold their offshore holdings and acquired a block of acreage in a hot new shale play, Dave felt a mild sinking feeling. He was good at what he did and over the years, had become quite comfortable working with the team of geophysicists, geologists, and engineers who covered the areas he was assigned to. Shale was another story altogether. True enough, he had worked onshore in the Permian Basin and the MidContinent, but that was yesterday and today's approaches to exploring and developing heterogeneous clastics plays were quite different. Compounded with his feelings of being out of date with respect to onshore were his misgivings about how transferrable his offshore experience might be. How much of his offshore knowledge and experience would really apply to an onshore shale play?
Dave realized that he was going to have to equip himself for his new job, and he was going to have to do it quickly. Otherwise, he might find himself incapable of performing the job he needed to do. With the massive shale play came a massive leasehold position. The company had instituted an aggressive drilling program, with leases with very short terms left on them. He did not have the luxury of time to leisurely retool.
Dave plunged into education. The first thing that Dave did was to sign up for every conference and webinar he could find. He signed up for an AAPG section meeting and also an Applied Technology Workshop from the SPE and an AAPG Geosciences Technology Workshop. While he did find he learned a great deal at the conferences, they did not cover everything he needed to know. In the conferences and workshops, it was up to him to find the oral presentations and posters that seemed to have something to do with his needs, and then to fill in the gaps of his knowledge.
He then signed up for a webinar from Hart and a few AAPG symposia. He enjoyed them and found them to be convenient and affordable. The webinars were good, but they tended to focus on specific aspects of a play, and their coverage was equally incomplete.
Was there anything else? Was there a perfect solution?
As Dave surfed websites and leafed through the course catalogues of for-profit and not-for-profit education providers, Dave realized that he was going to have to take a very pro-active approach to his professional development. There were no packages that covered everything that he needed to know. Further, he did not have time to attend the week-long courses he found offered, despite the fact that they looked potentially useful. Further, he felt more comfortable with traditional approaches to learning, and felt a bit skeptical about e-learning.
To his surprise, the e-learning courses and instructional materials he found online seemed to be the most convenient, affordable, and relevant to his needs. In addition to webinars and e-symposia, he found AAPG’s OpenCourseWare on Introduction to Shale Plays to be affordable and interesting. He also found a few courses from universities’ online courses from the University of Tulsa and Texas A&M. Dave started to assemble a set of educational events in what seemed more and more like a jigsaw puzzle approach to education. He rather liked the approach because it was flexible and could be tailored to his needs.
He found that there was a wide range of offerings for e-learning, which ranged from formal online learning courses of 4 or 8-week duration, to one-hour “live” (synchronous) webinars. Simulations and immersive world environments were available in Second Life. Commercial simulations and learning modules on horizontal drilling and geosteering were available from PetroEd and IHRDC. In addition, there were self-study modules, immersive virtual worlds, simulations, and self-study texts, maps, diagrams, podcasts, and videos. They included articles on AAPG’s Search & Discovery, Datapages article repositories, videos and simulations from Department of Energy websites. He also downloaded resources from PTTC’s TechPlace.
The challenge was going to be to construct the ideal blend of e-learning and face-to-face. Dave did not want to dispense totally with the traditional face-to-face classroom learning. After all, it was good to have the human interaction, and to incorporate the spontaneity of being in a discussion with people with the same learning goals, and a knowledgeable subject matter expert / instructor.
Like Dave, you're probably facing your own need to keep current in the face-paced world of exploration and development, particularly as it relates to the evolution of technology and interesting applications. You’re jumping in with both feet, and you’re ready to explore what works, and what you can afford.
What you and Dave are embarking on is a very good example of effective informal learning. What animates the quest for knowledge is a deep-seated desire to learn, which manifests as very powerful intrinsic motivation. Tying your e-learning selections to real-world cases and situations makes the entire endeavor come alive. It’s not an abstraction or something you’ll potentially benefit from in the future. The need is palpable and here now.
Another aspect of informal learning is the ability to build on prior knowledge. As Dave selects the webinars to attend, he finds he gets the most out of ones that relate to what he already knows, and which use that scaffolding to advance more knowledge / skills, and to continue to build from each new stage.
Informal learning is inherently adaptive, which is to say that once you master one topic you can easily move to the next level, or select topics that relate to what you’ve learned. Face-to-face learning that is linear and very mapped out often does not offer the kind of flexibility of e-learning, particularly an e-learning plan that consists of components that you’ve selected, some of which you can opt out of if you find you already know the information, or which no longer suit your situation.
Numerous forms of e-learning exist, ranging from full learning management systems to independent stand-alone learning objects. The time to complete an online learning event can range from a few minutes to a few months. The learning activities can encompass simulations, interactive texts and graphics, quizzes, multimedia (video / audio), immersive environments and role-playing, mobile maps and activities.
How do you choose from the wide array of offerings? Dave jumped right in, but it is not something that all people can do. He built a learning program built around a blend of online and face-to-face training, but his approach may not be within everyone's budget. It can be quite expensive to travel to conferences and workshops, and you may need the equivalent of four or five of them per year to get up to speed. If you can only attend two face-to-face events a year, what do you choose as your e-learning instructional content?
Before you begin, you need to develop an approach that assures you that you learn precisely what you need to know. Your learning goals need to align well with the courses / e-learning you select.
As you're selecting courses, you need to step back and make a realistic assessment of your own learning styles and preferences. Are you a kinesthetic learner? Do you need hands-on experience to really learn something? Are you a visual learner? Do you need maps, diagrams, and text? Or, are you an auditory learner, and need lectures and dialogue?
Finally, you need to satisfy yourself that you've actually learned something. You also may need to satisfy your employer or a board. As you select your courses, make sure that there is some sort of assessment involved -- a quiz, problem set, case study. If not, you may need to make your own. Write a paper or create a learning journal or notebook to document your knowledge.
One thing that makes developing a learning program difficult is the fact that every person is unique, and each individual has specific goals and objectives that they must achieve in order to advance in their careers and/or personal life.
Informal learning, which requires one to do a very close needs assessment of oneself, and to sift through what may seem to be an overabundance of options, can be somewhat challenging.
You may opt for more formal learning, which involves a structured curriculum, and courses which require all participants to successfully complete a list of activities and assessments.
In many ways, pursuing a college degree is much easier to do than post-graduate workplace-driven professional development. After all, the curriculum is already prescribed, and you’re tasked with performing to the best of your ability. There are very few decisions to be made – at least in the traditional way of going about pursuing a degree.
In today’s graduate school, however, there is much more connection between career goals and education. You may have the opportunity to take courses and conduct research that applies to your long-term goals. Certainly your thesis is viewed as a way to open doors into the type of work you’d like to do.
What do you do, though, when you find that your formal education has now become far removed from what you’re currently working in or on? It might be a good time to work on a certificate course, usually graduate level. The certificate courses often count toward a master’s degree, which is convenient if you’re interested in solidifying your credentials for a career move.
Geoscience education and professional development are not just about pure science and technology. It’s often necessary to incorporate business and professional ethics.
After a particularly awkward meeting with local officials who suggested that they would not renew exploration licenses unless companies doing business in their community set up a training center to be located in the mayor’s son’s building and the center was to be staffed and operated by other relatives of the mayor, Janika realized she needed some guidance.
Was there an ethical problem with the local officials’ demand? What should she do?
Janika was not in a position to fly to London or Paris and take a course in international law, professional ethics, or international business. Nor could she take a course at the local institute. They did not have the courses she needed, and they were taught in a language she could converse in, but nothing more.
For Janika, a series of e-learning courses would fit her needs quite well. The ideal situation would be to take asynchronous modules that would include movies, audio, readings, and quizzes. If any of the courses included discussion boards / discussion forums, they would be particularly helpful as she tried to gain an understanding of the situation. Being able to share experiences with others would be ideal.
She could also participate in webinars or other synchronous events if she had sufficient bandwidth. She could also take a semester-long online course through a university that offered online courses.
After investigating e-learning offerings, she opted to take a combination of e-learning modules, a webinar, and to sign up for a very informal instructor-led course. She found that the AAPG offered online training through the DPA and also its education department. International business ethics modules were available from a wide variety of providers including Skillsoft.
Janika also logged into Second Life where she visited various universities’ international business programs, hoping for a forum or presentation on ethics. She did have a chance to chat with an avatar with the name Luppi Gremstraum about doing business internationally. However, she was not able to stay logged on. Her connection was not fast enough, and virtual world environments are notoriously bandwidth-hungry.
Nevertheless, Janika was very happy with what she found, and she felt she would be much better equipped for her next meetings with the local officials who issued permits, licenses, and other required documents.
Both Dave and Janika had positive experiences with e-learning. For Dave, it was best to develop a hybrid approach and to blend online and traditional face-to-face learning. For Janika, whose options were more limited, finding high-quality material online was a big relief. Both opted to focus more on informal rather than formal learning.
Successful e-learning for geoscientists requires an assertive, pro-active approach. It is necessary to possess a certain amount of courage as well, as you honestly assess your needs and you identify the areas that need to be strengthened. Further, clear goals and a timeline are imperative, along with a commitment to an open mind and an exploratory attitude. Perhaps one of the most important keys to successful e-learning is the willingness to learn new things – even ones that do not particularly appeal to you. Broadening your knowledge and embracing an interdisciplinary approach will help you adapt, evolve, and prevail in a constantly changing environment.