Using StoryMaps to prepare for field course – A case study of students in Geography

Abstract

Field course is an important learning activity for students in disciplines like geography and biology. Unfortunately, lack of resources, large student groups, and unprepared students can result in students being passive rather than active during field course preparation. This article reports from a learning intervention where the use of StoryMaps replaced traditional lectures to increase active learning during field course preparation. StoryMaps is a multimedia platform with interactive functionalities, and we assess potential increased learning outcome from a learning intervention based on theories from geographic visualization. Students used StoryMaps to become familiar with the field course site and the field course assignments. As a follow-up, students had to write a reflection note about their thoughts and experiences from using StoryMaps. These notes revealed that students consider StoryMaps as helpful to access information from multiple sources in one visual platform, where they can choose how and what they want to learn, at what time, and in which order. Students also found that complex physical geographical-, and geomorphological principles became more concrete as StoryMaps helped them perceive these principles from multiple angles using pictures, videos, tasks, animations, and graphs. The few critical reflections are mainly related to minor technical issues.

Keywords

• field course
• StoryMaps
• geographical visualization
• map-use-cube
• science communication
• active learning