Three tips for creating an online course for nontraditional student populations

In spring 2020, the University of Minnesota Erosion and Stormwater Management Certification Program temporarily ceased in‐person workshops due to the spread of COVID‐19. Twenty workshops were canceled, and the 1,233 attendees (all adult learners) were moved into asynchronous online course sections. These online workshops were the first remote courses that many of the attendees had ever attempted. Here, we provide tips for successfully creating online classes for nontraditional student populations.     

Backyard evolutionary biology: Investigating local flowers brings learning to life

Inquiry‐based learning allows students to actively engage in and appreciate the process of science. As college courses transition to online instruction in response to COVID‐19, incorporating inquiry‐based learning is all the more essential for student engagement. However, with the cancelation of in‐person laboratory courses, implementing inquiry can prove challenging for instructors. Here, I describe a case that exemplifies a strategy for inquiry‐based learning and can be adapted for use in various course modalities, from traditional face‐to‐face laboratory courses to asynchronous and synchronous online courses. I detail an assignment where students explore the developmental basis of morphological evolution. Flowers offer an excellent example to address this concept and are easy for students to access and describe. Students research local flowering plants, collect and dissect flower specimens to determine their whorl patterns, and generate hypotheses to explain the developmental genetic basis of the patterns identified. This task allows students to apply their scientific thinking skills, conduct guided exploration in nature, and connect their understanding of the developmental basis of evolutionary change to everyday life. Incorporating inquiry using readily available, tangible, tractable real‐world examples represents a pragmatic and effective model that can be applied in a variety of disciplines during and beyond COVID‐19.     

Implementing team‐based learning in the life sciences: A case study in an online introductory level evolution and biodiversity course

Team‐Based Learning (TBL) is a pedagogical tool that has great potential to develop student engagement, accountability, and equity in the online classroom. TBL is rooted in evidence‐based educational theories and practices that underlie many active learning approaches such as self‐testing, team discussion, and application of knowledge. The use of these approaches is associated with better student performance, retention, and sense of belonging in the classroom, aspects that are often reported to be especially lacking in online courses. Here, we describe how we implemented TBL in a face‐to‐face and an online introductory level evolution and biodiversity course. We implemented TBL in the face‐to‐face course (~200 students) starting in 2018 and in the online course (~30 students) starting in the summer of 2019. We used several online applications to facilitate the transition to an online platform such as Simbio, Slack, VoiceThread, Articulate 360, and Teammates. Our experiences using TBL approaches in the online course have been rewarding, and students are engaged and accountable for their learning and performed well in the course. Our goal is to provide an example of how we designed a life science course using TBL approaches and transitioned the course to an online environment. With the current switch to remote instruction and online learning, we recommend the use of TBL as a course design approach that can improve the students’ online learning experience.     

Teaching an experiential field course via online participatory science projects: A COVID‐19 case study of a UC California Naturalist course

Experience and training in field work are critical components of undergraduate education in ecology, and many university courses incorporate field‐based or experiential components into the curriculum in order to provide students hands‐on experience. Due to the onset of the COVID‐19 pandemic and the sudden shift to remote instruction in the spring of 2020, many instructors of such courses found themselves struggling to identify strategies for developing rigorous field activities that could be completed online, solo, and from a student''s backyard. This case study illustrates the process by which one field‐based course, a UC California Naturalist certification course offered at the University of California, Davis, transitioned to fully remote instruction. The transition relied on established, publicly available, online participatory science platforms (e.g., iNaturalist) to which the students contributed data and field observations remotely. Student feedback on the course and voluntary‐continued engagement with the participatory science platforms indicates that the student perspective of the experience was on par with previous traditional offerings of the course. This case study also includes topics and participatory science resources for consideration by faculty facing a similar transition from group field activities to remote, individual field‐based experiences.     

Next‐generation field courses: Integrating Open Science and online learning

As Open Science practices become more commonplace, there is a need for the next generation of scientists to be well versed in these aspects of scientific research. Yet, many training opportunities for early career researchers (ECRs) could better emphasize or integrate Open Science elements. Field courses provide opportunities for ECRs to apply theoretical knowledge, practice new methodological approaches, and gain an appreciation for the challenges of real‐life research, and could provide an excellent platform for integrating training in Open Science practices. Our recent experience, as primarily ECRs engaged in a field course interrupted by COVID‐19, led us to reflect on the potential to enhance learning outcomes in field courses by integrating Open Science practices and online learning components. Specifically, we highlight the opportunity for field courses to align teaching activities with the recent developments and trends in how we conduct research, including training in: publishing registered reports, collecting data using standardized methods, adopting high‐quality data documentation, managing data through reproducible workflows, and sharing and publishing data through appropriate channels. We also discuss how field courses can use online tools to optimize time in the field, develop open access resources, and cultivate collaborations. By integrating these elements, we suggest that the next generation of field courses will offer excellent arenas for participants to adopt Open Science practices.     

Perspectives on facilitating dynamic ecology courses online using active learning

As education methodology has grown to incorporate online learning, disciplines with a field component, like ecology, may find themselves sidelined in this transition. In response to challenges posed by moving classes online, previous studies have assessed whether an online environment can be effective for student learning. This work has found that active learning structures, which maximize information processing and require critical thinking, best support student learning. All too commonly, online and active learning are perceived as mutually exclusive. We argue the success of online learning requires facilitating active learning in online spaces. To highlight this intersection in practice, we use a case study of an online, active, and synchronous ecology and conservation biology course from the College of Natural Sciences at Minerva Schools at KGI. We use our perspectives as curriculum designers, instructors, and students of this course to offer recommendations for creating active online ecology courses. Key components to effective course design and implementation are as follows: facilitating critical “thinking like a scientist”, integrating open‐ended assignments into class discussion, and creating active in‐class dialogues by minimizing lecturing. Based on our experience, we suggest that by employing active learning strategies, the future of ecology in higher education is not inhibited, but in fact supported, by opportunities for learning online.     

Moving academic conferences online: Aids and barriers to delegate participation

In‐person academic conferences are important to disseminate research and provide networking opportunities. Whether academics attend in‐person conferences is based on the cost, accessibility, and safety of the event. Therefore, in‐person conferences are less accessible to academics and stakeholders that are unable to overcome some of these factors, which then act as a barrier to equal and inclusive participation. Additionally, the carbon footprint of conference travel is increasingly becoming a factor in deciding on whether to attend a conference. Online conferences may provide opportunities to mitigate these challenges. Here, we illustrate how a learned society can move their conference online. Then, comparing data acquired from the virtual conference and previous in‐person conferences, we explore the aids and barriers influencing the decision of delegates to attend the meetings. Ultimately, moving meetings online aids delegate participation by removing concerns about travel, cost, and carbon emissions, but there remains a barrier to participation as online meetings are perceived as less effective for networking and social opportunities.     

Podcasting as a tool to take conservation education online

Traditional forms of higher learning include teaching in the classroom on college campuses and in‐person adult‐focused public outreach events for non‐students. Online college degree programs and public outreach platforms have been steadily emerging, and the COVID‐19 pandemic has, at least temporarily, forced all related ecology and evolutionary biology programs to move to online delivery. Podcasting is a form of online mass communication that is rapidly gaining popularity and has the flexibility to be incorporated into the pedagogical toolbox for the online classroom and remote public outreach programming. Podcasting is also becoming more popular in the ecology and evolutionary biology field. Here, we describe the great potential of podcasting to transform the learning experience, present a case study of success from the United States, provide a table of podcast recommended by ecologist responding to a listserv, and provide a road map for adoption and utilization of podcasting for the future.     

A virtual bird’s eye view: Live streaming nest boxes to continue outreach in the era of COVID‐19

COVID‐19 created a host of challenges for science education; in our case, the pandemic halted our in‐person elementary school outreach project on bird biology. This project was designed as a year‐long program to teach fifth‐grade students in Ithaca, New York, USA, about bird ecology and biodiversity using in‐person presentations, games, activities, and outdoor demonstrations. As a central part of this effort, we set up nest boxes on school property and planned to monitor them with students during bird breeding in the spring. Here, we describe our experiences transitioning this program online: we live streamed nest boxes to the students’ virtual classroom and used them as a focal point for virtual lessons on bird breeding and nestling development. In an era of social distancing and isolation, we propose that nest box live streaming and virtual lessons can support communities by providing access to the outdoors and unconventional science learning opportunities for all students. Instituting similar programs at local schools has the potential to increase equitable learning opportunities for students across geographic locations and with varying degrees of physical access to the outdoors and nature.     

Lessons learned through listening to biology students during a transition to online learning in the wake of the COVID‐19 pandemic

During the Spring Semester of 2020, an outbreak of a novel coronavirus (SARS‐CoV‐2) and the illnesses it caused (COVID‐19) led to widespread cancelling of on‐campus instruction at colleges and universities in the United States and other countries around the world. Response to the pandemic in university settings included a rapid and unexpected shift to online learning for faculty and students. The transition to teaching and learning online posed many challenges, and the experiences of students during this crisis may inform future planning for distance learning experiences during the ongoing pandemic and beyond. Herein, we discuss the experiences of first‐ and second‐year university students enrolled in a biology seminar course as their classes migrated to online environments. Drawing on reported student experiences and prior research and resources, we discuss the ways we will adjust our own teaching for future iterations of the course while offering recommendations for instructors tasked with teaching in online environments.     

An at‐home laboratory in plant biology designed to engage students in the process of science

The COVID‐19 pandemic prompted a transition to remote delivery of courses that lack immersive hands‐on research experiences for undergraduate science students, resulting in a scientific research skills gap. In this report, we present an option for an inclusive and authentic, hands‐on research experience that all students can perform off‐campus. Biology students in a semester‐long (13 weeks) sophomore plant physiology course participated in an at‐home laboratory designed to study the impacts of nitrogen addition on growth rates and root nodulation by wild nitrogen‐fixing Rhizobia in Pisum sativum (Pea) plants. This undergraduate research experience, piloted in the fall semester of 2020 in a class with 90 students, was created to help participants learn and practice scientific research skills during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Specifically, the learning outcomes associated with this at‐home research experience were: (1) generate a testable hypothesis, (2) design an experiment to test the hypothesis, (3) explain the importance of biological replication, (4) perform meaningful statistical analyses using R, and (5) compose a research paper to effectively communicate findings to a general biology audience. Students were provided with an at‐home laboratory kit containing the required materials and reagents, which were chosen to be accessible and affordable in case students were unable to access our laboratory kit. Students were guided through all aspects of research, including hypothesis generation, data collection, and data analysis, with video tutorials and live virtual sessions. This at‐home laboratory provided students an opportunity to practice hands‐on research with the flexibility to collect and analyze their own data in a remote setting during the COVID‐19 pandemic. This, or similar laboratories, could also be used as part of distance learning biology courses.     

Strength is in engagement: The rise of an online scientific community during the COVID‐19 pandemic

Many scientists, confined to home office by COVID‐19, have been gathering in online communities, which could become viable alternatives to physical meetings and conferences. Subject Categories: S&S: Careers & Training, Methods & Resources, S&S: Ethics

As COVID‐19 has brought work and travel to a grinding halt, scientists explored new ways to connect with each other. For the gene regulation community, this started with a Tweet that quickly expanded into the “Fragile Nucleosome” online forum, a popular seminar series, and many intimate discussions connecting scientists all over the world. More than 2,500 people from over 45 countries have attended our seminars so far and our forum currently has ~ 1,000 members who have kick‐started discussion groups and mentorship opportunities. Here we discuss our experience with setting up the Fragile Nucleosome seminars and online discussion forum, and present the tools to enable others to do the same.Too often, we forget the importance of social interactions in science. Indeed, many creative ideas originated from impromptu and fortuitous encounters with peers, in passing, over lunch, or during a conference coffee break. Now, the ongoing COVID‐19 crisis means prolonged isolation, odd working hours, and less social interactions for most scientists confined to home. This motivated us to create the “Fragile Nucleosome” virtual community for our colleagues in the chromatin and gene regulation field.

… the ongoing COVID‐19 crisis means prolonged isolation, odd working hours and less social interactions for most scientists confined to home.

While the need to address the void created by the COVID‐19 pandemic triggered our actions, a large part of the international community already has had limited access to research networks in our field. Our initiative offered new opportunities though, in particular for those who have not benefited from extensive networks, showing how virtual communities can address disparities in accessibility. This should not be a stop‐gap measure during the pandemic: Once we come out from our isolation, we still need to address the drawbacks of in‐person scientific conferences/seminars, such as economic disparities, travel inaccessibility, and overlapping family responsibilities (Sarabipour, 2020). Our virtual community offers some solutions to the standing challenges (Levine & Rathmell, 2020), and we hope our commentary can help start conversations about the advantages of virtual communities in a post‐pandemic world.

… once we come out from our isolation we still need to address the drawbacks of in‐person scientific conferences/seminars, such as economic disparities, travel inaccessibility and overlapping family responsibilities…

     

Online but not remote: Adapting field‐based ecology laboratories for online learning

Teaching ecology effectively and experientially has become more challenging for at least two reasons today. Most experiences of our students are urban, and we now face the near immediate and continuing need to deliver courses (either partially or wholly) online because of COVID‐19. Therefore, providing a learning experience that connects students to their environment within an ecological framework remains crucial and perhaps therapeutic to mental health. Here, we describe how prior to the pandemic we adapted our field‐based laboratories to include data collection, analysis, and interpretation, along with the development of a citizen‐science approach for online delivery. This design is simple to implement, does not require extensive work, and maintains the veracity of original learning outcomes. Collaboration online following field data collection in ecology courses within the context of cities offers further options to adapt to student experience levels, resource availability, and accessibility, as well as bringing instructors and students together to build an open well‐curated data set that can be used in ecology courses where no laboratories are available. Finally, it promotes an open collaboration among ecology instructors that can drive lasting conversations about ecology curriculum.     

Bioinspiration as a method of problem‐based STEM education: A case study with a class structured around the COVID‐19 crisis

Bioinspiration is a promising lens for biology instruction as it allows the instructor to focus on current issues, such as the COVID‐19 pandemic. From social distancing to oxygen stress, organisms have been tackling pandemic‐related problems for millions of years. What can we learn from such diverse adaptations in our own applications? This review uses a seminar course on the COVID‐19 crisis to illustrate bioinspiration as an approach to teaching biology content. At the start of the class, students mind‐mapped the entire problem; this range of subproblems was used to structure the biology content throughout the entire class. Students came to individual classes with a brainstormed list of biological systems that could serve as inspiration for a particular problem (e.g., absorptive leaves in response to the problem of toilet paper shortages). After exploration of relevant biology content, discussion returned to the focal problem. Students dug deeper into the literature in a group project on mask design and biological systems relevant to filtration and transparency. This class structure was an engaging way for students to learn principles from ecology, evolution, behavior, and physiology. Challenges with this course design revolved around the interdisciplinary and creative nature of the structure; for instance, the knowledge of the participants was often stretched by engineering details. While the present class was focused on the COVID‐19 crisis, a course structured through a bioinspired approach can be applied to other focal problems, or subject areas, giving instructors a powerful method to deliver interdisciplinary content in an integrated and inquiry‐driven way.     

Calcium signaling induces a partial EMT

Epithelial plasticity, or epithelial‐to‐mesenchymal transition (EMT), is a well‐recognized form of cellular plasticity, which endows tumor cells with invasive properties and alters their sensitivity to various agents, thus representing a major challenge to cancer therapy. It is increasingly accepted that carcinoma cells exist along a continuum of hybrid epithelial–mesenchymal (E‐M) states and that cells exhibiting such partial EMT (P‐EMT) states have greater metastatic competence than those characterized by either extreme (E or M). We described recently a P‐EMT program operating in vivo by which carcinoma cells lose their epithelial state through post‐translational programs. Here, we investigate the underlying mechanisms and report that prolonged calcium signaling induces a P‐EMT characterized by the internalization of membrane‐associated E‐cadherin (ECAD) and other epithelial proteins as well as an increase in cellular migration and invasion. Signaling through Gαq‐associated G‐protein‐coupled receptors (GPCRs) recapitulates these effects, which operate through the downstream activation of calmodulin‐Camk2b signaling. These results implicate calcium signaling as a trigger for the acquisition of hybrid/partial epithelial–mesenchymal states in carcinoma cells.     

Selective cross‐linking of coinciding protein assemblies by in‐gel cross‐linking mass spectrometry

Cross‐linking mass spectrometry has developed into an important method to study protein structures and interactions. The in‐solution cross‐linking workflows involve time and sample consuming steps and do not provide sensible solutions for differentiating cross‐links obtained from co‐occurring protein oligomers, complexes, or conformers. Here we developed a cross‐linking workflow combining blue native PAGE with in‐gel cross‐linking mass spectrometry (IGX‐MS). This workflow circumvents steps, such as buffer exchange and cross‐linker concentration optimization. Additionally, IGX‐MS enables the parallel analysis of co‐occurring protein complexes using only small amounts of sample. Another benefit of IGX‐MS, demonstrated by experiments on GroEL and purified bovine heart mitochondria, is the substantial reduction of undesired over‐length cross‐links compared to in‐solution cross‐linking. We next used IGX‐MS to investigate the complement components C5, C6, and their hetero‐dimeric C5b6 complex. The obtained cross‐links were used to generate a refined structural model of the complement component C6, resembling C6 in its inactivated state. This finding shows that IGX‐MS can provide new insights into the initial stages of the terminal complement pathway.     

Aneuploid senescent cells activate NF‐κB to promote their immune clearance by NK cells

The immune system plays a major role in the protection against cancer. Identifying and characterizing the pathways mediating this immune surveillance are thus critical for understanding how cancer cells are recognized and eliminated. Aneuploidy is a hallmark of cancer, and we previously found that untransformed cells that had undergone senescence due to highly abnormal karyotypes are eliminated by natural killer (NK) cells in vitro. However, the mechanisms underlying this process remained elusive. Here, using an in vitro NK cell killing system, we show that non‐cell‐autonomous mechanisms in aneuploid cells predominantly mediate their clearance by NK cells. Our data indicate that in untransformed aneuploid cells, NF‐κB signaling upregulation is central to elicit this immune response. Inactivating NF‐κB abolishes NK cell‐mediated clearance of untransformed aneuploid cells. In cancer cell lines, NF‐κB upregulation also correlates with the degree of aneuploidy. However, such upregulation in cancer cells is not sufficient to trigger NK cell‐mediated clearance, suggesting that additional mechanisms might be at play during cancer evolution to counteract NF‐κB‐mediated immunogenicity.     

Why students do not turn on their video cameras during online classes and an equitable and inclusive plan to encourage them to do so

Enrollment in courses taught remotely in higher education has been on the rise, with a recent surge in response to a global pandemic. While adapting this form of teaching, instructors familiar with traditional face‐to‐face methods are now met with a new set of challenges, including students not turning on their cameras during synchronous class meetings held via videoconferencing. After transitioning to emergency remote instruction in response to the COVID‐19 pandemic, our introductory biology course shifted all in‐person laboratory sections into synchronous class meetings held via the Zoom videoconferencing program. Out of consideration for students, we established a policy that video camera use during class was optional, but encouraged. However, by the end of the semester, several of our instructors and students reported lower than desired camera use that diminished the educational experience. We surveyed students to better understand why they did not turn on their cameras. We confirmed several predicted reasons including the most frequently reported: being concerned about personal appearance. Other reasons included being concerned about other people and the physical location being seen in the background and having a weak internet connection, all of which our exploratory analyses suggest may disproportionately influence underrepresented minorities. Additionally, some students revealed to us that social norms also play a role in camera use. This information was used to develop strategies to encourage—without requiring—camera use while promoting equity and inclusion. Broadly, these strategies are to not require camera use, explicitly encourage usage while establishing norms, address potential distractions, engage students with active learning, and understand your students’ challenges through surveys. While the demographics and needs of students vary by course and institution, our recommendations will likely be directly helpful to many instructors and also serve as a model for gathering data to develop strategies more tailored for other student populations.     

A functional assay for serum detection of antibodies against SARS‐CoV‐2 nucleoprotein

The humoral immune response to SARS‐CoV‐2 results in antibodies against spike (S) and nucleoprotein (N). However, whilst there are widely available neutralization assays for S antibodies, there is no assay for N‐antibody activity. Here, we present a simple in vitro method called EDNA (electroporated‐antibody‐dependent neutralization assay) that provides a quantitative measure of N‐antibody activity in unpurified serum from SARS‐CoV‐2 convalescents. We show that N antibodies neutralize SARS‐CoV‐2 intracellularly and cell‐autonomously but require the cytosolic Fc receptor TRIM21. Using EDNA, we show that low N‐antibody titres can be neutralizing, whilst some convalescents possess serum with high titres but weak activity. N‐antibody and N‐specific T‐cell activity correlates within individuals, suggesting N antibodies may protect against SARS‐CoV‐2 by promoting antigen presentation. This work highlights the potential benefits of N‐based vaccines and provides an in vitro assay to allow the antibodies they induce to be tested.