A couple of broad ways to structure virtual field trips in on online class are:

• students individually view a virtual tour on their computer and report back on their findings

• students individually go out into the community to visit a physical site and report back on their findings

For the first, there are a lot of options for virtual yours, from nature-related tours of parks, zoos, and natural habitats, to city and landmark tours. A quick Google search of "virtual Field Trips" or "Virtual Tours" will turn up a great deal, and from here you can refine your search based on the type of field trip you want your students to experience. A few examples are these incredible Virtual Safaris, this virtual tour of the U.S. Capitol, and this New York State Museum's Ellis Island Exhibit. 

The second kind of virtual field trip, where students go out into the community, is the kind I’m really excited about in terms of building community in an online class. In the virtual field trip I am planning, students will visit one of the historic attractions or art galleries in downtown Manassas from the below Visitor Guide. From there, I will structure it in one of several ways.

The first possibility is that students will each decide upon a site to visit and then report back after visiting on a particular artefact from or characteristic of the site. Students will provide their reporting on a class Padlet with the map feature, so they can pinpoint the site on the map, and will deliver their reporting with video from the site that they take themselves (which could include them reporting from the site), photos, and/or audio. In the next stage, the class can work together to build a tour itinerary based upon the submissions. 

The second possibility is that students are paired up, and each pair is assigned a site to visit individually. All is the same as in the previous, but in this version, the instructor provides each group the location of the letters in a codeword and a riddle that has the codeword as the answer. For example, for one letter, the instructor will direct them to the 3rd letter in the 4th word on the plaque in front of the Manassas National Jubilee exhibit. The remaining letters in the codeword will have similar clues telling where to find them at the location, and once the pair has all the letters, they can unscramble them and identify the codeword from the riddle. In the next class meeting, each pair will provide their codeword, and the class will then solve the code phrase together, which will be made up of each group's codewords. If all the pairs and the class work together to successfully solve the code phrase, they will "escape" from a quiz or other assignment and will receive a reward. 

Finally, an option is to split the class into groups of four or five, and each group acts as if they will make a documentary about the site, so they need members to take on different roles. Within the group, one person will be assigned photographer/videographer, one will be the historian/researcher, one will be the community storyteller (recounting a fictional connection to a local story about the site), and one will be the marketer. The groups won't actually make the documentary, but instead each member will create the materials for their particular role.

There are countless possibilities for ways to make this an engaging, exciting, and asynchronously collaborative activity. What ideas do you have? Please don't hesitate to share in the Connect, Share, and Collaborate section of this website.