The Society for American Archaeology recently asked Department of Geosciences faculty member Fred Limp to present a lecture in their online series on dealing with the strategies that can be used to quickly move classes online.

The society is the major scholarly and professional organization for archaeologist in the Americas. It has more than 7,000 members and a significant proportion are faculty in higher education and many, if not most, have been faced with the challenges of movingly quickly online.

Limp has been involved at the University of Arkansas in online class development and instruction for more than five years. He and other faculty in the Department of Geosciences created the Arkansas Department of Higher Education-approved Online Certificate of Proficiency in Geospatial Technologies with a six-course curriculum.

Since its inception, the classes have enrolled hundreds of students with a year-over-year 20% increase in students. Limp created and serves as the instructor for three of the six classes.

He drew upon this experience in developing the lecture that was streamed live on March 26 and will be available for later viewing by all SAA members. Limp included in his lecture the many lessons learned from working closely with the UA Global Campus team lead by Director of IDSS Miran Kang, Online Program Coordinator Suzanne Kenner and Instructional Designer Adam Brown.

Limp urged the SAA faculty to apply triage to their efforts focusing on the critical requirements. He discussed a range of tools that can be used to interact with students online and create a sense of both engagement and community.