Broadcasting from the field: enabling student-led investigations by distance

We developed a method of enabling environmental science students to conduct a student-led field investigation with academics who broadcast live from the field in conjunction with interactive voting widgets. We have been running these ‘fieldcasts’ for the last five years but now reflect on how they could be useful more broadly as a result of the covid-19 pandemic. Here we describe the approach which uses a framework of fixed and flexible components that takes students through the process of conducting a field investigation. We reflect on its flexibility for new sites and presenters as well as how it could work with socially distanced presenters and technical support.