The Experience and Evaluation of a new undergraduate course on Climate Change

In 2009 a new undergraduate course in Climate Change was scheduled by the Department of Geography & Planning and Department of Environmental Science. GEPL/EEES 2200 is an introductory course on climate change that had an open enrollment (any undergraduate student from any program can take the course), without required prerequisites, and an initial enrollment 42 students. The course was first offered during the Spring 2009 academic term. The course covers a full range of scientific and policy issues regarding climate change including: atmospheric processes, carbon cycling, historical global temperatures, evidence for climate change, global impacts, and mitigation strategies. A key component of the course was the range of innovative online learning tools and methods with the course created in a Distance Learning format. An online learning community was established within the WebCT course website to allow for an interactive forum for student participation. This presentation will highlight the evaluation of key outcomes from the course including: a comparison of pre and post course assessments, student participation, quiz results, performance on assignments, preparation of final term projects, and data from course evaluations completed by students.