Incorporating Fieldwork

The following resources offer guidelines for faculty and tips for students in courses that include field experiences.

The LA&S Task Force Report, Guidelines to Facilitate Student Field Activities, provides a framework for preparing a course for field work, including: selecting sites, creating syllabi, evaluating students outside of the classroom, developing safety guidelines, and emergency response protocol.
The Steans Center provides a handout on community conduct & safety tips for students engaging in field work.

Fieldwork and Mobile Learning

Mobile devices such as smartphones can aid students' studies in the field. They can be used to capture data such as GPS coordinates, images, sound, and video. Students can also use these devices to take notes and share their work. Watch the videos below to learn how anthropology professors Jane Baxter and Marcia Good have incorporated mobile learning in their courses that require fieldwork. Learn more about mobile learning at DePaul.

Further Resources

Steans Center for Community-Based Service Learning

Supports faculty in the development, administration, and teaching of courses that integrate service-learning pedagogies
Identifies project opportunities at non-profit organizations
Provides ongoing logistical support for faculty teaching a service learning course

Career & Life Design (CLD) from the Career Center

Career and Life Design courses fulfill students' Junior Year Experiential Learning Requirement (JYEL).
Department staff advises faculty in the development and teaching of academic internship courses.
Connects students to internship advising, opportunities, and listings.

The Carleton College Geology Department offers a discipline-specific discussion of the pedagogy behind incorporating field experience in the sciences. While this page was created for geoscience, it remains relevant to all subject areas and offers pedagogical foundations for structuring field labs, managing time in the field, and supporting students with special needs.