Breaking Out of the Box Teaching Biology with Web-Based Active Learning Modules

Abstract

At all levels, we hear from the experts that students leam best when they are given multiple opportunities to actively exercise and demonstrate skills (Anderson & Adams 1992; Chickering & Gamson 1987; McKeachie, Pintrich, Yi-Guang & Smith 1986; Bonwell 1996). Or, more simply put, students need to be things and about the things they are (Bonwell & Eison 1991). This sounds so trite, yet with all the facts that exist between the pages of our students' introductory biology textbooks and all the information we have gathered in our notes over years of research and teaching, it is hard for us, the biology instructors, to put down our lecture plans and open the door to change. Rather than continue to teach biology as an accretion of facts, with which we barrage our students, we should focus on key concepts, or instructional essentials. I suggest herein that one way of this is to transform our lectures into classroom presentations using web-based visual animations and interactive learning exercises that are designed to engage students in the key concepts being taught. The bottom line: students must be doing and thinking throughout class time and, just as important, independent study time. We the biology professors must care about our college students enough to cultivate new teaching methods, either taken from the experts or devised by ourselves, in order to foster more active learning. In this article, I would like to share with you how I have revitalized my introductory college biology classroom presentations for majors and nonmajors using web-based learning modules that are visual and interactive, and cover key concepts.