Implementing a Virtual Surveying Lab

In 2020, the COVID pandemic forced educators to pivot to an online teaching modality in the middle of spring semester. In preparation for a summer offering of a surveying and geomatics class, faculty chose to develop a virtual laboratory that could provide a quality, virtual learning experience for students that would fully meet the course learning outcomes. The resulting virtual laboratory centered on a series of videos that put the student in a second-person perspective of a note-taker on a survey crew. The modules built around these videos not only allowed for a fully virtual delivery of the laboratory, with students participating from as far away as Saudi Arabia, they also ensured full participation of every student, something that live survey labs sometimes lack. This paper describes the virtual lab in contrast with a traditional in-person laboratory. Students in the virtual lab reported that it contributed more to their learning than did students in the traditional laboratory. Recommendations for improving the laboratory and incorporating it into a post-COVID curriculum are proposed, including the potential for addressing accessibility constraints on the in-person lab and as a supplemental learning resource.