(681.2) Pedagogical Lessons Learned During the Time of COVID-19

Poster Board Number: A489

Phillip Ortiz (State University of New York (SUNY), Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education (BAMBEd)), Carolyn Dehner (Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education (BAMBEd))

As COVID-19 swept the globe colleges and universities opted to suspend face-to-face lectures and laboratories as a step to slow the spread of this disease. Rather than cancel their courses instructors worked to deliver content and assess learning via distance learning and online pedagogies.  Since this shift occurred mid-semester and unexpectedly, instructors and curriculum designers needed to make the transition quickly and smoothly. The urgency of the situation was not a call for lowering standards or changing learning outcomes. Rather, it was an opportunity to revisit our courses with a focus on the critical learning outcomes.

During their course transitions many instructors discovered that creating coursework for an online setting is not a transcriptional process, in which only the medium by which the content delivery differed, but a translational one in which they needed to use an entirely different set of tools. For example, while creating video lecture captures or transcribing the text of the lectures may be the quickest way to make the transition, in the long-term instructors may have used readings from a variety of sources; relatively brief written, audio or video “mini-lectures”; different textbooks, open educational resources, and other content sources; and importantly, incorporated frequent assessments with rapid feedback.

Delivering laboratory content via online modalities can be especially challenging. Moving it online may have been an opportunity to reconfigure an experience that often requires that students focus much of their efforts on data collection, to one that emphasizes hypothesis formulation, experimental design, and data analysis. It is possible that when this crisis passes some of the insights gained in moving courses online will be useful in enhancing learning in traditional settings.

To help educators transition to online teaching, the leadership of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education (BAMBEd) compiled a freely accessible virtual issue that may serve as useful resources for BMB educators who are converting their face-to-face courses to the online modality.  That content may be accessed at: https://IUBMB.onlinelibrary.Wiley.com/doi/toc/10.1002/(ISSN)1539-3429.Teaching-COVID-19

That virtual collection also marked BAMBEds commitment to continue to expand this knowledge base and to make new resources available to the community of educators quickly. To that end, we welcomed brief rapid communications from educators on creative and innovative approaches. In addition, we also welcomed submissions by the leadership of professional organizations as they make statements of educational priorities and offer guidance to the field.