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Abstract The COVID‐19 pandemic forced educators to teach in an online environment. This was particularly challenging for those teaching courses that are intended to support bench science research. This practitioner article tells the story of how an instructor transformed their Course‐based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) using the Backwards Design Method into a synchronous online course. Research objectives in this transformed course included: conducting a literature review, identifying research questions and hypotheses based on literature, and developing practical and appropriate research methodologies to test these hypotheses. We provide details on how assignments were created to walk students through the process of research study design and conclude with recommendations for the implementation of an online CURE. Recommendations made by the instructor include scaffolding the design, building opportunities for collaboration, and allowing students to fail in order to teach the value of iteration. The Backwards Design framework naturally lends itself to a scaffolded instructional approach. By identifying the learning objectives and final assessment, the learning activities can be designed to help students overcome difficult concepts by filling in the gaps with purposeful instruction and collaborative opportunities. This present course also practiced iteration through the extensive feedback offered by the instructor and opportunities for students to revise their work as their understanding deepened. Anecdotally, based on end of course reviews, students overall had a positive experience with this course. Future work will examine the efficacy of student learning in this online environment and is forthcoming.
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Improving the learning experience in an undergraduate course on microbial metabolism by using an illustrated story
Abstract In the classroom, metabolism is often approached and received as a mundane exercise in memorization. Teaching metabolism also faces the challenge of negative perceptions that can impede learning. We sought to improve the learning experience in an undergraduate lecture course on microbial metabolism by implementing an illustrated story that follows anEscherichia colicell during a cholera outbreak. Feedback from students, compiled over four semesters of relatively minimal intervention, suggests that attitudes improved. Most students also thought that storytelling helped them learn. Exam scores suggested that the story could have had a positive performance impact for some questions that required students to apply correct details to specific situations. Our results suggest that a story could improve the learning experience in a course on a traditionally unpopular topic by both improving emotional responses to the subject matter and by providing a familiar framework upon which to contextualize details.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1749489
- PAR ID:
- 10556736
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education
- ISSN:
- 1470-8175
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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