5.4 Conclusions and Caveats

The ICE approach provided a guiding and organizing framework for online course design as it offered a holistic way of knowing, doing, and being that aligns with the complex thinking of a geoscientist. These ways of thinking, namely spatial, temporal, and systems thinking, help prepare students when they are immersed in natural or built environments, attempting to solve individual problems interconnected within the complex and dynamic Earth system. In geosciences, students grapple with the complexities and integrated nature of the Earth system. From our observations and reflections, the ICE framework supported a process of meaning-making within an ecosystem of online discussions, announcements, activities, reflections, and assignment instructions, all of which were attuned to the phases of ICE. Nevertheless, we discovered that students need to exercise agency and responsibility to mobilize all three phases of ICE. What started as a framework that guided our design of one assignment and rubric, eventually permeated our philosophical approach to significantly influence our approach to course design and development as a whole.

References

Fostaty Young, S. (2005). Teaching, learning and assessment in higher education: Using ICE to improve student learning. Proceedings of the Improving Student Learning Symposium, London, UK, 13, 105-115.

Monica Vesley. (2017). The ICE model: An Alternative Learning Framework, Centre for Teaching Excellence Blog, University of Waterloo https://cte-blog.uwaterloo.ca/?p=5282