Share A five-week independent mapping project is a rite of passage for most third-year geology students. It’s also a core part of degree accreditation by the Geological Society of London. But the ongoing COVID-19 crisis has meant that students are unable to access the usual international fieldwork locations in countries including Spain and Cyprus. Rather than seeing this as a negative, staff at the University of Southampton have used the situation as an opportunity to reboot the field experience to align with the rapidly evolving geospatial needs of geoscience agencies around the world. “The result is a high-quality hybrid mapping project that incorporates sophisticated geospatial analysis coupled with local fieldwork”, said Dr Tom Gernon, an Associate Professor of Earth Science at the University and coordinator of the module. “We end up with the best of both worlds: our students receive training in using next-generation digital mapping technology, whilst also gaining the essential hands-on experience in surveying and taking measurements in the field”.