The overarching goal of this project was to facilitate the development, use and long-term adoption of innovations that support active-learning in the field of hydrology and water resources engineering undergraduate education. To accomplish this goal, we established an innovative platform (www.hydrolearn.org) that supports the development, sharing and customization of authentic, online learning modules in the field of hydrology and water resources engineering. The platform and associated pedagogical model allows instructors to create modules using best practices in curriculum development. This addresses the need for collaboratively developing and sharing high quality open educational resources and thereby elevating the level of learning across the community serving the field of hydrology and water resources engineering. We built tools into the platform that help instructors write measurable learning objectives, design rubrics aligned to those objectives, and integrate hydrologic modeling tools to create authentic learning experiences for students. The project thus achieved the following two main outcomes: (a) support the development, sharing and customization of authentic, online learning modules in the field of hydrology and water resources, and (b) provide professional training to water educators on the development of effective learning modules on societally critical water problems.

Through this project, we developed and refined evidence-based methodologies and curriculum for training educators. We designed and implemented a HydroLearn Fellowship program to engage faculty members from different US institutions. Through this fellowship program, we engaged with 59 faculty members from more than 50 US Universities over 4 years to develop modules using the HydroLearn platform. This was achieved through a series of workshops and module development hackathons. The participating faculty created a total of 50+ modules,  deployed them on HydroLearn and used them in their classes. The modules cover a wide range of societally-critical topics such as: water sustainability, flood risk, hydrologic design, droughts and water management, water quality, and groundwater contamination. Evaluation data showed that faculty users valued the modular design of the modules, making them easy to customize and implement in their courses. Faculty also appreciated the alignment between learning objectives, learning activities, and assessments and the tools built into the system to help design the modules. Students assessment data showed that the modules supported their active learning and encouraged them to work collaboratively with their peers. At multiple institutions where HydroLearn modules were used, students completed a formal assessment of learning gains survey addressing changes in their conceptual understanding and technical skills. We found that students reported a statistically significant, meaningful, and in comparison to other uses of such surveys, a large increase in understanding of concepts and skills after participating in the modules.

The project implemented an active outreach plan to disseminate information on the platform and existing modules widely. As a result of this  HydroLearn modules have been used in all of the 50 US States and several countries around the world. The HydroLearn platform now has 511 instructor accounts (for faculty to create, adapt and adopt modules) and 2765 student accounts (for students to learn from module content). The project website and its modules have had more than 26,000 users from the US and around the world. Many of the users are from institutions not directly engaged in developing the modules, which is evidence of independent propagation and adoption of the project products. We have also disseminated the modules through more than 21 presentations and 18 publications, as well as through social media outlets (e.g., Twitter and YouTube).

Last Modified: 12/23/2022
Modified by: David G Tarboton