After campus closure March 2020, students learning at home.

Massive disruption to life.

How could students learn to identify rocks and minerals without on-campus lab with physical samples of rocks and minerals? How could students prepare for quiz on identification?

A good-enough start with cellphone camera. Software good-enough for video production. Small LED panel lights, chemistry lab ringstand, black velour, workbench for table, tripod and weights to stabilize cellphone.

My cellphone macro lens is pretty good for close-up shots and short videos. Demonstrations of all manipulations of sample a student might perform in lab. Links to videos below.

• magnetism test combustion test

• acid test fracture test

Building a website with Google Sites is pretty easy. Pre-built template is designed for drag-and-drop of image files, web links, text blocks. No coding required. The hard part is assembling all digital assets and organization of information to meet objectives.

Mineral identification website actually built prior to pandemic for students who miss lab.

Online media organized for easy access and correspondence to lab activity in identifying a mineral by testing its properties.

Online document contains links to all needed materials stored online for viewing and study. Links to unknowns and reference (knowns) require student observation and response. Fill-in boxes are placeholders for student responses.

• mineral identification lab activity document

Instructors create mineral identification activities adapted for their own students learning remotely with online mineral identification website resources. Documents have embedded links to specific image, video, or text section for student study. Colleagues shared online activities for download and adaptation by others.

• collection of shared lab activities

Google Analytics collect data that is anonymizes specific user. Data is aggregated into categories of use. Patterns of use reveal user demand across time and by access.

• Online Mineral Guide Dashboard

Information Dashboard retrieves cumulative data to present. Dashboard calendar begins January 1, 2020. Remote access is dominated by laptops/desktops.

• Online Mineral Guide Dashboard

Windows and Apple dominate Operating Systems. Diversity of others seemed surprising to me.

• Online Mineral Guide Dashboard

Interesting that many Apple users must be using Chrome for browser. Also interesting is the large diversity of other browsers, pointing to hardware diversity. This would be a challenge for information delivery if it weren't for Google servers to be "responsive" - automatic re-formatting of web page for client device.

• Online Mineral Guide Dashboard

Detailed geographic demand for online resources concentrated by population.

• Online Mineral Guide Dashboard - U.S. Metro Analytics

Mineral identification website accessed from all 50 states. Dominated by California, Texas and New York. Only 5 states with fewer than 100 accesses (Jan. 2020 to June 2022) [MS, ND, AK, HI, VT].

• Online Mineral Guide Dashboard - U.S. States

Demand for mineral identification resources for teaching introductory lab extends internationally. Website must have been discovered by web searches and Google algorithms returning suggested web pages based on rising connections.

• Online Mineral Guide Dashboard - World Analytics

Repetitive cycles of demand access correspond to academic semesters. Highest hits occurred Sept. 8, 2020 when 977 users accessed the website. Most surprising is the spring 2022 demand access not so much less than previous semesters during most campus closures. I would have thought that with the return to campus, instructors would abandon these online resources.

• Online Mineral Guide Dashboard

Dashboard is real-time and live at the click of the link.

I'm continuing to use online resources even after students have returned to campus. Students who miss lab still need online resources to make up the missed work.

We're not back to normal (and might not ever be going forward). Online resources created for pandemic remote learning will (and should) integrate into teaching and learning environments post-pandemic.

All my resources are online and publicly accessible.

The Online Mineral Guide (OMG - as suggested by Kevin Hurler) is open.

Companion websites are available with resources for labs on the study and identification of the common igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rock types. Not as well developed as my mineral identification website.