Innovation in teaching and learning invertebrate zoology in remote and online classrooms

The COVID‐19 global pandemic caused instructors to pivot to remote and online teaching, an especially challenging task in hands‐on classes such as invertebrate biology. In this special 25th anniversary issue of Invertebrate Biology, the authors present a variety of clever and effective ways to help invertebrate biology instructors adapt to teaching in an online environment. Student‐centered research and learning are essential in all biology classes, and we explore scientific writing, field trips, do‐it‐yourself laboratories, and more. These techniques will be useful for classes of varying sizes and types, from non‐major undergraduates to graduate students, even after the pandemic is over. Innovation for teaching invertebrate biology online may help facilitate more inclusive courses that serve diverse students more equitably. Ideas for how to best move traditionally hands‐on laboratories into online or remote formats are currently also being informally discussed in a collaborative online space for instructors.     

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.     

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.     

Foundations of form and function: A synthesis‐based curriculum for introductory‐level organismal biology

First‐year majors organismal biology courses are frequently taught as survey courses that promote memorization rather than synthesis of biological concepts. To address the shortcomings of this approach, we redesigned the organismal portion of our introductory biology curriculum to create a “Foundations of Form and Function” course. Foundations of Form and Function introduces different organismal forms and focuses on the relationship between those forms and the execution of key physiological functions. Goals of our new course include the following: developing student recognition of common characteristics that unite living organisms as well as features that distinguish taxonomic groups, facilitating student understanding of how organisms accomplish similar functions through different forms, and reinforcing course themes with independent student research. In this paper, we describe course learning outcomes, organization, content, assessment, and laboratory activities. We also present student perspectives and outcomes of our course design based on data from four years of student evaluations. Finally, we explain how we modified our course to meet remote learning and social‐distancing challenges presented by the COVID‐19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021.     

Student‐led field studies of herbivory: Hands‐on experiences for remote (or in‐person) learning

Challenging students to independently design and implement experiments is a powerful way to teach the scientific method while engaging with STEM‐related course material. For ecology and organismal biology, such experiences often take the form of field work. The COVID‐19 pandemic presented formidable challenges for instructors of such courses: How can students conduct any experiments, much less ones of their own design, when they might not even have access to campus? Here we describe a student‐led field project exploring invertebrate herbivory in terrestrial plant systems. Designed to flexibly accommodate student groups working either in‐person, remotely, or both, the project would be suitable for invertebrate biology, plant biology, or general ecology courses at the college or high school level. We describe our implementation in two sections of a sophomore‐level course, provide specific advice based on our experiences, make suggestions for future improvements or adaptations, and provide all the written materials that instructors would need to implement this in their own teaching.     

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.     

Reflections on a massive open online life cycle assessment course

Purpose

This article summarizes student performance and survey data from a recent massive open online course (MOOC) on life cycle assessment (LCA). Its purpose is to shed light on student learning outcomes, challenges, and success factors, as well as on improvement opportunities for the MOOC and the role of online courses in LCA education in general.

Methods

Student survey data and course performance data were compiled, analyzed, and interpreted for 1257 students who completed a pre-course survey and 262 students who completed a post-course survey. Both surveys were designed to assess student learning outcomes, topical areas of difficulty, changing perceptions on the nature of LCA, and future plans after completing the MOOC.

Results and discussion

Results suggest that online courses can attract and motivate a large number of students and equip them with basic analytical skills to move on to more advanced LCA studies. However, results also highlight how MOOCs are not without structural limitations, especially related to mostly “locked in” content and the impracticality of directly supporting individual students, which can create challenges for teaching difficult topics and conveying important limitations of LCA in practice.

Conclusions

Online courses, and MOOCs in particular, may present an opportunity for the LCA community to efficiently recruit and train its next generations of LCA analysts and, in particular, those students who might not otherwise have an opportunity to take an LCA course. More surveys should be conducted by LCA instructors and researchers moving forward to enable scientific development and sharing of best practice teaching methods and materials.     

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.     

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.     

Fostering equity,diversity, and inclusion in large,first‐year classes: Using reflective practice questions to promote universal design for learning in ecology and evolution lessons

Instructors can deliberately design for equity, diversity, and inclusion, including for large first‐year classes, and now instructors have added challenges given COVID‐19. Our paper explores the question: How do we integrate equity, diversity, and inclusion and universal design for learning (UDL) into first‐year, undergraduate ecology and evolution introductory lessons given the COVID‐19 pandemic? Given the large field exploring equity, diversity, and inclusion, we chose to focus on developing reflective practice question rubrics for before, during, and after lessons to encourage UDL for instructors, teaching assistants, and learners. We conducted a focus group within our team and discussed ideas related to online learning, including related pitfalls and solutions. Lastly, we created a figure to illustrate ideas and end with a general discussion. Our reflective practice questions for UDL rubrics, figure, focus group, and discussion aim to increase positive action for equity, diversity, and inclusion in the classroom and beyond.     

后疫情时代“人体及动物生理学”教学体系创新与实践

新冠疫情发生之后,线上教学的全面应用给高校教育教学带来了挑战和机遇。后疫情时代,新的教学体系构建是课程教学改革的重点。针对生物科学专业“人体及动物生理学”的课程特点,课程组教师通过更新教学理念、重构课程内容、转变教学模式、强化德智融合、改进考核方式等构建新的教学体系,以满足学生个性化学习的需求,适应新的教学环境。本文介绍了课程改革创新与实践的情况。     

Cultivating scientific literacy and a sense of place through course‐based urban ecology research

Undergraduate research experiences have been shown to increase engagement, improve learning outcomes, and enhance career development for students in ecology. However, these opportunities may not be accessible to all students, and incorporating inquiry‐based research directly into undergraduate curricula may help overcome barriers to participation and improve representation and inclusion in the discipline. The shift to online instruction during the COVID‐19 pandemic has imposed even greater challenges for providing students with authentic research experiences, but the pandemic may also provide a unique opportunity for creative projects conducted remotely. In this paper, I describe a course‐based undergraduate research experience (CURE) designed for an upper‐level ecology course at California State University, Dominguez Hills during remote learning. The primary focus of student‐led research activities was to explore the potential impacts of the depopulation of campus during the pandemic on urban coyotes (Canis latrans), for which there were increased sightings reported during this time. Students conducted two research studies, including an evaluation of urban wildlife activity, behavior, and diversity using camera traps installed throughout campus and analysis of coyote diet using data from scat dissections. Students used the data they generated and information from literature reviews, class discussions, and meetings with experts to develop a coyote monitoring and management plan for our campus and create posters to educate the public. Using the campus as a living laboratory, I aimed to engage students in meaningful research while cultivating a sense of place, despite being online. Students’ research outcomes and responses to pre‐ and post‐course surveys highlight the benefits of projects that are anchored in place‐based education and emphasize the importance of ecological research for solving real‐world problems. CUREs focused on local urban ecosystems may be a powerful way for instructors to activate ecological knowledge and capitalize on the cultural strengths of students at urban universities.     

Engaging students through online video homework assignments: A case study in a large‐enrollment ecology and evolution course

Online educational videos have the potential to enhance undergraduate biology learning, for example by showcasing contemporary scientific research and providing content coverage. Here, we describe the integration of nine videos into a large‐enrollment (n = 356) introductory evolution and ecology course via weekly homework assignments. We predicted that videos that feature research stories from contemporary scientists could reinforce topics introduced in lecture and provide students with novel insights into the nature of scientific research. Using qualitative analysis of open‐ended written feedback from the students on each video assigned throughout the term (n = 133–229 responses per video) and on end‐of‐quarter evaluations (n = 243), we identified common categories of student perspectives. All videos received more positive than negative comments and all videos received comments indicating that students found them intellectually and emotionally stimulating, accessible, and relevant to course content. Additionally, all videos also received comments indicating some students found them intellectually unstimulating, though these comments were generally far less numerous than positive comments. Students responded positively to videos that incorporated at least one of the following: documentary‐style filming, very clear links to course content (especially hands‐on activities completed by the students), relevance to recent world events, clarity on difficult topics, and/or charismatic narrators or species. We discuss opportunities and challenges for the use of online educational videos in teaching ecology and evolution, and we provide guidelines instructors can use to integrate them into their courses.     

Taking practical learning in STEM education home: Examples from do‐it‐yourself experiments in plant biology

Practical teaching can give authentic learning experiences and teach valuable skills for undergraduate students in the STEM disciplines. One of the main ways of giving students such experiences, laboratory teaching, is met with many challenges such as budget cuts, increased use of virtual learning, and currently the university lockdowns due to the COVID‐19 pandemic. We highlight how at‐home do‐it‐yourself (DIY) experiments can be a good way to include physical interaction with your study organism, system, or technique to give the students a practical, authentic learning experience. We hope that by outlining the benefits of a practical, at‐home, DIY experiment we can inspire more people to design these teaching activities in the current remote teaching situation and beyond. By contributing two examples in the field of plant biology we enrich the database on experiments to draw inspiration from for these teaching methods.     

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.     

Grand challenges in organismal biology

A renaissance in organismal biology has been sparked by recent conceptual, theoretical, methodological, and computational advances in the life sciences, along with an unprecedented interdisciplinary integration with Mathematics, Engineering, and the physical sciences. Despite a decades-long trend toward reductionist approaches to biological problems, it is increasingly recognized that whole organisms play a central role in organizing and interpreting information from across the biological spectrum. Organisms represent the nexus where sub- and supra-organismal processes meet, and it is the performance of organisms within the environment that provides the material for natural selection. Here, we identify five "grand challenges" for future research in organismal biology. It is intended that these challenges will spark further discussion in the broader community and identify future research priorities, opportunities, and directions, which will ultimately help to guide the allocation of support for and training in organismal biology.     

An integrated,modular approach to data science education in microbiology

We live in an increasingly data-driven world, where high-throughput sequencing and mass spectrometry platforms are transforming biology into an information science. This has shifted major challenges in biological research from data generation and processing to interpretation and knowledge translation. However, postsecondary training in bioinformatics, or more generally data science for life scientists, lags behind current demand. In particular, development of accessible, undergraduate data science curricula has the potential to improve research and learning outcomes as well as better prepare students in the life sciences to thrive in public and private sector careers. Here, we describe the Experiential Data science for Undergraduate Cross-Disciplinary Education (EDUCE) initiative, which aims to progressively build data science competency across several years of integrated practice. Through EDUCE, students complete data science modules integrated into required and elective courses augmented with coordinated cocurricular activities. The EDUCE initiative draws on a community of practice consisting of teaching assistants (TAs), postdocs, instructors, and research faculty from multiple disciplines to overcome several reported barriers to data science for life scientists, including instructor capacity, student prior knowledge, and relevance to discipline-specific problems. Preliminary survey results indicate that even a single module improves student self-reported interest and/or experience in bioinformatics and computer science. Thus, EDUCE provides a flexible and extensible active learning framework for integration of data science curriculum into undergraduate courses and programs across the life sciences.     

The teacher writing toolkit: enhancing undergraduate teaching of scientific writing in the biological sciences

ABSTRACT

Teaching scientific writing in biology classes is challenging for both teachers and students. This article offers and reviews several useful ‘toolkit’ items that instructors of science writing can use to improve college student success. The tools in this kit are both conceptual and practical, and include: 1) Understanding the role of student metacognition, cognitive instruction, and strategic teaching, 2) Recognition of different student writing levels, 3) Applying the writing process, 4) Demonstrational classroom revision and editing, 5) Student-teacher sentence editing, 6) Student peer editing and guided student editing, 7) Student copy-editing, 8) Reflective writing, 9) Addressing plagiarism, paraphrasing, and proper in-text citations and referencing, and 10) Using external, on campus and online resources. Additionally, we discuss the new challenges of teaching scientific writing online versus face-to-face. The discussions, approaches, and exercises presented in this paper empower teachers in assisting students in their development of a personal writing style, while simultaneously building student confidence. The tools we present augment our previous presentation of the student writing toolkit, and can improve and enhance the teaching of scientific writing to undergraduate students.     

A comparative study between outcomes of an in‐person versus online introductory field course

The COVID‐19 pandemic has disrupted many standard approaches to STEM education. Particularly impacted were field courses, which rely on specific natural spaces often accessed through shared vehicles. As in‐person field courses have been found to be particularly impactful for undergraduate student success in the sciences, we aimed to compare and understand what factors may have been lost or gained during the conversion of an introductory field course to an online format. Using a mixed methods approach comparing data from online and in‐person field‐course offerings, we found that while community building was lost in the online format, online participants reported increased self‐efficacy in research and observation skills and connection to their local space. The online field course additionally provided positive mental health breaks for students who described the time outside as a much‐needed respite. We maintain that through intentional design, online field courses can provide participants with similar outcomes to in‐person field courses.