Opportunities: What new opportunities arose as a result of the pandemic?

The pandemic spurred advancements in online courses, degree programs, virtual instruction, and adaptations in teaching methodologies across higher education and K–12 settings. There was a clear shift towards flexible working and learning arrangements, with changes in remote and in-office work requirements, highlighting the challenges and benefits of these arrangements. Recent graduates faced skill and knowledge gaps and had to adapt to new work and learning modes, engaging in professional development opportunities and learning new technical skills. There were significant fluctuations in hiring trends, with changes in desired skillsets, recovery, and rebound in hiring rates, modifications in requirements for potential employees, and contrasting trends between academic and geoscience employers.

New opportunities

The pandemic has prompted the emergence of various new work and research opportunities across different cohorts. Specifically, over a third of academic departments and geoscience employers, as well as over half of the individuals surveyed, reported such opportunities. These included collaborations with other U.S. organizations, international entities, and initiatives within their own organizations. Around a third of all study cohorts reported new work or research projects. Additionally, half of the academic departments reported a shift in their work or research focus due to the pandemic, a change echoed by just under a fifth of geoscience employers and individual survey participants.

I started really taking advantage of the virtual networking opportunities. With the transition to hybrid or fully virtual meetings that's allowed me to really stretch my travel budget to attend some meetings and connect with some colleagues virtually that I might not have the opportunity to otherwise...and that's been the other asset is certainly the switch to virtual and hybrid has really allowed not only for domestic here in the United States but also for broader connections internationally as well as with colleagues that I probably wouldn't see but you know once every four or five years if I was lucky prior to the pandemic.

–recent graduate

We have expanded our remote partnership network, including potential for remote instruction by teaching lecturers (instructors) in disciplinary areas not locally available.

–academic department

Links to relevant survey data charts

New opportunities for work or research due to the pandemic

Types of new work and research opportunities due to the pandemic

Change in the focus of work or research due to the pandemic

Technological integration into instructional environments

The pandemic spurred significant advancements in incorporating new technologies into educational settings. These included fully online courses and degree programs, as well as the use of virtual modules and online activities within courses. These technologies were used in various ways by instructors to enhance their curriculum and boost student engagement, especially during the early stages of the pandemic when teaching was primarily conducted online.

Before the pandemic, two-thirds of departments offered no online options, while nearly a third provided fully online courses, and only 1% had online degree programs. However, plans for the Fall 2021 term showed a substantial shift: over half of the departments planned to offer fully online courses, and just over a tenth intended to provide fully online degree programs. The most substantial growth was observed in hybrid courses, with less than a tenth of departments offering this format pre-pandemic, but nearly two-thirds indicating they would be offering hybrid courses in Fall 2021. Interestingly, while just under a fifth of departments offered online course modules before the pandemic, none of the departments surveyed indicated plans to offer this format in Fall 2021.

From December 2020 to January 2022, academic faculty progressively utilized a range of components in virtual instruction across all course formats, including lecture courses, labs, and field activities. These components encompassed essays or papers, online tests, virtual talks, in-person field activities, at-home lab activities, video demonstrations, online discussions, and both recorded and real-time lectures. The application of datasets, maps, and third-party course modules grew overall, peaking in 2021.

I have explored new possibilities with virtual field trips and have become more engaged in Zoom conferences, including one on diversity and equity in geoscience.

–academic faculty

Many of our faculty are participating in dissemination of online teaching strategies, in particular with virtual field trips.

–academic department

I have been exploring virtual field experiences including Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, 360 imagery, LiDAR imagery and other resources to bring the field to students.

–academic faculty

Virtual instructional components

The usage of virtual instructional components varied depending on the type of course being taught. In virtual lecture courses, essays or papers, online tests, and virtual talks were the most prevalent, followed by recorded and real-time lectures, online discussions, and video demonstrations. Fewer than half of the faculty used datasets and maps, except for a surge in September 2021. In-person field activities were seldom used, while the utilization of at-home lab activities slightly decreased. On the other hand, the usage of third-party course modules saw a minor increase over the period. In the context of virtual lab sections and courses, the components most often used were essays or papers, at-home lab activities, video demonstrations, virtual talks, and maps. Datasets and online tests were widely used in 2021, but less than half of faculty reported using these components in 2022. For virtual field activities, faculty mainly used maps, in-person field activities, and essays or papers. Most other components were used by less than a third of the faculty over the period, with the exceptions being virtual talks in April 2021 and real-time lectures in September 2022.

It's important to note how in-person activities were integrated into virtual field courses and virtual field components to courses. While the primary mode of the field course or field component was virtual, specific activities within that course or component, such as homework or extra credit exercises, were in-person. During the early part of the pandemic, in-person field activities were usually conducted by students on their own with a faculty-provided instructional handout. Later in the pandemic, students would work together in the field on activities, sometimes in small groups with instructional handouts or accompanied by instructors.

K–12 faculty, much like academic faculty, utilized a diverse range of components in virtual instruction. The most commonly used included essays or papers, online tests, virtual talks, video demonstrations, online discussions, and both recorded and real-time lectures. At least half of the faculty used at-home lab activities in 2020 and Spring 2021, but usage decreased by Fall 2021. Components like datasets, maps, third-party course modules, and in-person field activities were less commonly used.

Benefits of virtual instruction

While virtual instruction presented challenges, it also offered several benefits. From December 2020 to February 2022, an increasing percentage of academic faculty highlighted the flexibility that virtual instruction provided for students, with over half recognizing this benefit in February 2022. The percentage of faculty noticing improvements in teaching and learning through virtual instruction fluctuated between 20% and 30% over the period. Around one-fifth of faculty acknowledged the enhanced accessibility for students in 2021, but this proportion decreased to less than one-tenth by 2022. Only a small fraction of faculty recognized the advantages of student collaboration and grading assignments, while perceptions of increased student engagement fluctuated during the period, with between roughly one-tenth and one-fifth of faculty acknowledging the benefit. Less than one-fifth of faculty noted that virtual instruction provided new tools and resources.

I have also a lot of alternatives now, so students are sick or something else comes up and they can't come to class. They can do an all online lab alternative. They can do an online field trip alternative. So, a lot of additional resources and supplements that are all online that weren't created before the pandemic.

–academic faculty

Members of our department created a fully online field camp last summer. They worked with education faculty to assess the outcomes of this and are now presenting the results of that research and writing manuscripts. They are also continuing to assess student learning by taking the same cohort of students out for mapping projects (on a volunteer basis, with social distancing and masking). This work should open up a lot of interesting possibilities for accessible field instruction.

–academic department

Preference for virtual instruction among faculty and students

Preferences for instructional formats between faculty and students varied throughout the pandemic. From September 2020 to February 2022, academic faculty consistently favored in-person instruction and showed the least preference for online instruction across all course types (i.e., introductory courses, undergraduate courses, and upper division courses). Although the preference for hybrid instruction varied over time, it was generally the second least favored format.

However, student preferences displayed a different trend. Students showed the least preference for online instruction for undergraduate and upper division courses, with a noticeable increase in this trend by February 2022. In contrast, for introductory courses, students demonstrated the least preference for both in-person and online instruction. Students most preferred in-person instruction for upper division courses and a mix of formats for introductory and undergraduate courses. By February 2022, one-third of students indicated a preference for hybrid and online formats over in-person instruction for introductory courses. For undergraduate courses, slightly more students preferred hybrid formats over in-person instruction.

Interest in virtual teaching and learning

Throughout 2021 and 2022, varying trends emerged regarding the interest in conducting lectures, labs, and field activities in hybrid and virtual formats among academic faculty and students. However, both cohorts had a higher interest in hybrid and virtual lectures compared to hybrid or virtual field activities. For academic faculty, half expressed interest in hybrid lectures, but interest in virtual lectures decreased from nearly half of faculty in 2021 to just over a third by 2022. There was a slight uptick in faculty interest for hybrid labs and virtual labs, but this interest was expressed by less than a third of faculty. Interest in hybrid and virtual field activities remained stable, attracting approximately a quarter and slightly over a tenth of faculty, respectively.

For students, there was a general decrease in interest in all virtual and hybrid formats. Interest in hybrid lectures declined from over three-quarters to nearly two-thirds of students. Interest in virtual lectures saw a less dramatic drop, decreasing from over half to just under half of students. Interest in hybrid labs declined to just over a third, and interest in virtual labs decreased to less than a tenth of students. Interest in hybrid and virtual field activities dropped significantly to less than a fifth and less than a tenth of students respectively. Among K–12 faculty, less than a third expressed interest in hybrid or virtual formats for instruction. Similar to academic faculty and students, the highest interest was observed in virtual and hybrid lectures.

Links to relevant survey data charts

Course format most preferred by academic faculty by format and level

Course format least preferred by academic faculty by format and level

Course format most preferred by students by format and level

Course format least preferred by students by format and level

Interest in teaching or learning via virtual modes

Interest in teaching via virtual modes (K–12 faculty)

Virtual instruction pre-pandemic and plans for Fall 2021

Benefits to teaching courses, labs, and field activities in an online setting

Components used by academic faculty in virtual teaching (labs, lectures, and field activities)

Components used by academic faculty in virtual field courses or field components to courses

Components used by academic faculty in virtual lab sections / courses

Component by academic faculty used in virtual lecture classes

Components used by K–12 faculty in virtual teaching (labs, lectures, and field activities)

Flexible working and learning arrangements

The pandemic presented an opportunity for employers and employees to assess the advantages of remote and in-person work, as well as find a balance between the two for daily and weekly operations. In 2022, employers were surveyed about the number of days they required employees to be physically present in the office each week. In the second quarter of 2022, three-quarters of employers did not mandate any office presence, 8% required at least 5 days in the office, 12% needed 3 to 4 days, and 4% required 1 to 2 days. However, by the third quarter, the percentage of employers not requiring office presence decreased to two-thirds, and there was an increase to 12% in employers requiring at least 5 days. Equal percentages of employers (12%) required either 3 to 4 days or 1 to 2 days in the office. By the fourth quarter, the percentage of employers not requiring office presence rose to over three-quarters, with one-fifth of employers requiring employees to work from the office at least 3 days per week.

The perceived necessity of physical presence at the office varied among different groups over time. For all participants, there was a noticeable increase in those viewing office presence as moderately to extremely necessary, rising from just over a quarter of respondents at the end of 2020 to 42% by the end of 2022. Academic faculty's perceived need for being on-campus notably increased from nearly a quarter at the end of 2020 to two-thirds by the end of 2022. K–12 faculty showed a similar trend, with the percentage considering office presence as necessary doubling from one-third to two-thirds over the period. Interestingly, at the end of 2020, over a third of post-doctoral fellows deemed office presence necessary, but by the end of 2022, none felt it was necessary. This could be due to the smaller sample size of this group and the specific nature of their work. Lastly, for non-academic geoscientists, their perception of the necessity of office presence remained fairly stable near 30% throughout the period.

Benefits from remote work environments

Throughout the pandemic, employers, departments, and individuals reported various challenges and benefits related to their work environments. Key advantages included increased flexibility in work location, improved use of virtual platforms and virtual communication, and greater opportunities to attend conferences. Benefits more frequently reported by employers and individuals than departments were the flexibility in work hours, decreased work-related expenses, and increased productivity. Employers noted an improved work/life balance more than individuals or departments did. Other advantages mentioned less frequently encompassed improved employee retention, enhanced collaboration, reduced usage of active office space, increased job satisfaction, absence of scheduling conflicts, and better teaching practices.

It's incredibly flexible, and some people are going to continue working from home. There's no reason for them to come in. And we've had some people in the office say, "Hey, if we're forced back to work, we will quit." We want to retain them. I can't say it inhibited hiring either over this time period because we hired so many people that aren't in the office anyway. I mean, they're working from all over. And actually, I think that's kinda positive if they can do the computer work, and if they're not you know, required to do field work and stuff like that. There's a lot of things now that can be just done online. And you know, obviously you're trusting the person is working 8 hours a day and isn't taking advantage of the situation. But you know, I think you're willing to take that risk to hire good people. And a lot of the people that we hire, they don't necessarily want to move from where they are. So you know, that's been a positive. I think things have really worked out.

–geoscience employer

Between 2020 and 2022, both academic departments and geoscience employers noted substantial changes in the benefits of work environments during the pandemic. The most commonly reported benefits included improved communication through virtual platforms, increased opportunities for staff and faculty to attend conferences, and location flexibility for employees. Other benefits, though reported less frequently, encompassed improved work-life balance, reduced work-related expenses, and flexibility in employees' work hours, along with decreased active use of office spaces. However, departments recorded a decrease in benefits related to collaboration, productivity, focus, and teaching practices.

Geoscience employers highlighted substantial benefits regarding employees' work-life balance, enhanced communication through virtual platforms, flexibility in work hours and location, better use of virtual platforms, and reduced work-related expenses. Additionally, they noticed improvements in collaboration, opportunities for employees to attend more conferences, reduced active use of office spaces, and increased productivity and focus. The benefits reported in 2022 also included improved employee retention and a reduction in scheduling conflicts.

Between 2020 and 2022, study participants reported improvements in the benefits of their work environments during the pandemic. By 2022, the majority of participants noted benefits such as improved communication via virtual platforms, increased opportunities to attend conferences, reduced work-related expenses, and flexibility in work hours and location. Over a third of participants acknowledged improved productivity, focus, and work-life balance. Fewer participants reported benefits that included fewer scheduling conflicts, increased job satisfaction, and improved collaboration.

However, these benefits varied by the cohort of study participants. Most academic faculty highlighted benefits such as improved communication via virtual platforms, the ability to attend more conferences, and flexibility in work hours and location. Approximately 30% of faculty also reported improved teaching practices.

Post-doctoral fellows cited improvements in collaboration, communication through virtual platforms, flexibility in work location and hours, and better utilization of virtual platforms. In 2020, they also noticed an increase in productivity and focus.

Similarly, students acknowledged improvements in communication via virtual platforms, increased opportunities to attend conferences, reduced work-related expenses, and flexibility in work hours and location. They also reported increased productivity and focus in 2020.

Non-academic geoscientists noted enhancements in work-life balance, communication through virtual platforms, opportunities to attend more conferences, reduced work-related expenses, increased flexibility in work hours and location, and increased productivity and focus. They also mentioned improved collaboration and job satisfaction.

Links to relevant survey data charts

Minimum number of days employees are required to work in the office per week

How necessary is it for you to be physically present at your employer's office to do you work duties?

How necessary is it for you to be physically present at your employer's office to do you work duties? (academic faculty)

How necessary is it for you to be physically present at your employer's office to do you work duties? (K–12 faculty)

How necessary is it for you to be physically present at your employer's office to do you work duties? (post-docs)

How necessary is it for you to be physically present at your employer's office to do you work duties? (non-academic geoscientists)

Benefits from work environments during the pandemic (2020–2022)

Benefits to faculty and staff from work environments during the pandemic

Benefits to employees from work environments during the pandemic

Benefits from work environments during the pandemic

Benefits from work environments during the pandemic (academic faculty)

Benefits from work environments during the pandemic (post-docs)

Benefits from work environments during the pandemic (students)

Benefits from work environments during the pandemic (non-academic geoscientists)

Learning new skills

During the pandemic, work and learning modes shifted, leading study cohorts to adapt their research and work modalities. As a result, some individuals learned new skills, driven by changes in project direction and design. Furthermore, some pandemic-era graduates found themselves with gaps in skills and knowledge due to disruptions in their academic programs. These gaps forced them to seek alternative methods to acquire the necessary skills and knowledge.

Recent geoscience graduates expressed a strong preference for technical skills they wished they had obtained before graduation. These included programming, data visualization, mapping software, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and data science, as well as field skills. Less than a third of these graduates noted that they wished they would have acquired database and lab skills, project management skills, and proficiency with virtual platforms prior to graduation. Remarkably, about one-tenth of the recent graduates felt they did not need any additional skills or knowledge.

To bridge these skills and knowledge gaps, recent graduates engaged in learning on their own or through employer-provided training. Most relied on self-taught instruction to gain the skills they wished they had acquired prior to graduation. Just over a third utilized professional training, and slightly more than a quarter turned to online training. Traditional methods, such as college courses, were used by one-fifth of recent graduates, while less than a tenth opted for topical bootcamps.

Employers played a key role in skills development, providing on-the-job training, mentorships, and apprenticeships for the majority of recent graduates. Other prevalent employer training methods included self-taught instruction, professional training, in-house workshops, and online training. Short courses were also employed, though college courses were rarely provided by employers. Of note, nearly one-fifth of recent graduates reported that their employers did not offer any skills development training at all.

Professional development engagement

Throughout the pandemic, study cohorts explored various professional development opportunities. The most popular activities across all groups included attending online workshops, seminars, or conferences, and mentoring students or colleagues. Active volunteering for professional societies was a common pursuit among all cohorts except students. Writing about research for both technical and non-technical audiences was a practice often cited by recent graduates (2019–2022), geoscience retirees, and students. Active volunteering on academic campuses was frequently mentioned by recent graduates (2014–2018), academic faculty, and students.

As far as research goes we actually had lots of undergraduates help with creating those classroom virtual activities and we were able to have them scan all of the samples that we would normally be giving out as hand samples in class but they were able to scan them so that they could be rotated in 3D for a virtual lab for a lot of our like intro and mineralogy type classes and so the students were able to learn how to use the various imaging scanners that we were using for those projects and come in on their own when nobody else was in the building to scan them for us and send them to us to make the labs out of so that ended up being counting for their undergraduate research experiences.

–academic faculty

Being forced out of the lab I looked towards improving my statistical/data analysis skills via online courses and am now pursuing some large datasets in my research that I previously did not use.

–academic faculty

When I was looking at post docs, they all had some sort of coding component to them and I didn't have and I enrolled in a data analytics certificate program. The skills I got I have used them and in publications So that I think that was the one thing I wouldn't have had unless I went outside of my degree program is working with Python or having formal training and doing some coding for analysis 'cause again you can always teach yourself but the scripts I wrote before I knew the rules are not exactly but most efficient or user friendly or anything like that.

–recent graduate

Looking more into how to do things I've never done before but heard about it. I have more time to do online research and watch videos of those who do the skill that I want to learn. I've had time to do more personal research and look into working on my skillsets that I can use to teach to my students.

–K–12 faculty

When considering the subject matter of online workshops, seminars, or conferences, geoscience topics were the most frequently mentioned by almost all study cohorts, with the exception of academic faculty and K–12 faculty, who primarily focused on teaching. Interest in technical topics increased across all cohorts during 2020 and 2021. However, while academic faculty reported an increase in geoscience topics during this period, there was also a decline in total interest in geoscience topics across all other cohorts between 2020 and 2021. Career development topics gained prominence among recent graduates, academic faculty, and non-academic geoscientists but were mentioned less frequently in 2021 by K–12 faculty, retirees, students, and unemployed students. Other subjects, such as geoscience professional society meetings, diversity, equity, and inclusion, and various other themes were generally noted by less than a third of respondents across all cohorts.

Links to relevant survey data charts

How recent graduates are acquiring the skills and/or knowledge they wished they had prior to graduation
https://covid19.americangeosciences.org/data/charts/individual-grnr-skills-knowledge-gain/

Types of employer-provided skills development training during new hire onboarding
https://covid19.americangeosciences.org/data/charts/individual-grnr-skills-knowledge-train/

Skills and/or knowledge recent graduates wished they had obtained prior to graduation
https://covid19.americangeosciences.org/data/charts/individual-grnr-skills-knowledge-want/

Topics of professional development webinars and online events
https://covid19.americangeosciences.org/data/charts/profdev-webinar-topics-2014-2018/

Topics of professional development webinars and online events
https://covid19.americangeosciences.org/data/charts/profdev-webinar-topics-2019-2022/

Topics of professional development webinars and online events
https://covid19.americangeosciences.org/data/charts/profdev-webinar-topics-if/

Topics of professional development webinars and online events
https://covid19.americangeosciences.org/data/charts/profdev-webinar-topics-ik/

Topics of co-curricular webinars and online events
https://covid19.americangeosciences.org/data/charts/profdev-webinar-topics-ir/

Topics of professional development webinars and online events
https://covid19.americangeosciences.org/data/charts/profdev-webinar-topics-is/

Topics of professional development webinars and online events
https://covid19.americangeosciences.org/data/charts/profdev-webinar-topics-iu/

Topics of professional development webinars and online events
https://covid19.americangeosciences.org/data/charts/profdev-webinar-topics-iw/

Engagement with professional development activities
https://covid19.americangeosciences.org/data/charts/professional-development-2014-2018/

Engagement with professional development activities
https://covid19.americangeosciences.org/data/charts/professional-development-2019-2022/

Engagement with professional development activities
https://covid19.americangeosciences.org/data/charts/professional-development-if/

Engagement with professional development activities
https://covid19.americangeosciences.org/data/charts/professional-development-ik/

Engagement with professional development activities
https://covid19.americangeosciences.org/data/charts/professional-development-ir/

Engagement with co-curricular activities
https://covid19.americangeosciences.org/data/charts/professional-development-is/

Engagement with professional development activities
https://covid19.americangeosciences.org/data/charts/professional-development-iw/

Changes in hiring practices

Hiring trends experienced significant fluctuations during the pandemic among both academic departments and geoscience employers. These shifts led to changes in the desired skillsets and knowledge sought for new hires. For academic departments, active faculty hiring between February 2020 and December 2022 showed marked variations. There was reduced activity at the peak of the pandemic in 2020. After 2020, hiring rates became more erratic, with noticeable spikes in January and October 2021, as well as October 2022, during which nearly 40% of departments were hiring.

For geoscience employers, hiring rates for all degree levels generally increased from May 2022 to November 2022. At the Bachelor's degree level, the percentage of employers hiring dropped from three-quarters in June 2021 to under half in May 2022 but then dramatically increased to 90% in November 2022. For the Master's degree level, hiring increased from over three-quarters in June 2021 to all employers in May 2022. This was followed by a drop to just under two-thirds in July 2022 before rebounding to full hiring at that level in November 2022. Doctorate degree hiring saw a decline from over half of employers in June 2021 to just over a third in July 2022, but it recovered to over half again by November 2022.

Since the onset of the pandemic, the hiring landscape within the geoscience field has seen noticeable changes. By the end of 2020, just over a third of geoscience employers noted that they had changed what they were looking for in potential new hires since the start of the pandemic. This proportion decreased to less than a fifth by the second quarter of 2021, a level that remained consistent through the first quarter of 2022. Interestingly, only a fifth of employers believed that the preferred and required skillsets for new hires had undergone fundamental changes compared to the pre-pandemic period.

The fundamental skills, the basic skills for each position haven't changed. What will have changed is we need people to be familiar with the online and virtual worlds in a more thorough way. We need you to know Zoom and we need you to know them all because people use all kinds of different platforms. We’ve actually talked about starting a Discord server because there’s that immediate connection. You can just get online. You don’t have to dial in. You can chat, you can talk, right? We’ve talked about something like that. Some sort of virtual community. It doesn’t have to be Discord. There are others out there. But I think going forward, that’s going to be one of the skillsets we’re going to be looking for is people that are far more familiar with the online world and more familiar with virtual communities because I think that’s going to be if we’re going to truly be able to have a national or even global workforce. We’re going to have to be more comfortable in the online realm.

–geoscience employer

Changes in skillset preference and requirements

The preferences for specific skillsets among employers for new hires fluctuated from mid-2021 to late-2022. The preference for project management skills dropped from a majority to just over half of employers, while the percentage requiring these skills rose from less than a tenth to a third. The preference for field skills increased from a third to half of employers, with the requirement for this skillset fluctuating between about a third and a half. The preference for lab skills ranged between a third and a half of employers, with the requirement for these skills growing from less than a fifth to a quarter.

In the realm of technology, preference for data visualization and mapping skills jumped from just under half of employers to over three-quarters, even as the requirement for these skills fell from a third to just over a tenth. While the preference for database skills increased from 60% to 85% of employers, the percentage of employers requiring these skills remained near 15%. The preference for data science, machine learning, and AI skills edged up slightly from just under a third to just over a third, with less than a tenth of employers mandating these skills. Programming skills preference saw a minor decline, from half of employers to just under half, with most not requiring this skillset. Finally, the preference for virtual platforms skills grew from just over a third of employers to nearly half, with the requirement for this skillset also increasing, moving from a quarter to nearly a half of employers.