Synergistic Environments in Graduate and Undergraduate Education (SEGUE) in Atmospheric Instrumentation and Measurement Training

The Synergistic Environments in Graduate and Undergraduate Education (SEGUE) in Atmospheric Instrumentation and Measurement Training is a collaborative project to design, develop, and openly distribute a series of interactive, multimedia, online modules that can be effectively integrated into courses on instrumentation, measurement, and observing systems to supplement traditional pedagogies and enhance blended instruction. This project addresses the need captured in an NRC report that concluded, “…concrete steps must be taken to enhance the availability of collaborative tools for university instruction in observing techniques to foster continued development of cutting-edge instruments and to increase the general literacy among atmospheric scientists on the subject of instrumentation and observational data.” The study of observational science crosses all other subject areas and requires a new innovative paradigm: a collaboration of experts to create high quality, content-rich learning modules that will elevate the scientific literacy and technical competency of undergraduate and graduate students. SEGUE brings together the intellectual capital of the scientists and engineers of National Center for Atmospheric Research Earth Observing Laboratory as subject matter experts, the artistic talents and instructional design acumen of the COMET program, and the project leadership, vision, teaching expertise in instruments and observational science at Millersville University. The result of this effort will be the creation of a robust set of open educational resources that will be available to the entire atmospheric science and meteorological community for instrumentation education and training programs, addressing topics such as principles of instrumentation and measurement to the theory and practice of measuring a host of meteorological variables. The impact will have a profound effect on the atmospheric observational sciences community by fulfilling a need for contemporary, interactive, multimedia guided education and training modules integrating the latest instructional design and assessment tools in observational science. Thousands of undergraduate and graduate students will benefit, while course instructors will value a set of high quality modules to use as supplements to their courses. The modules can serve as an alternative to observational research training and fill the void between field projects or assist those schools that lack the resources to stage a field- or laboratory-based instrumentation experience.