Creative Adjustments to an Undergraduate Chemical Biology Course from Research-Based in-Person to All-Remote Education during the Onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

With the global pandemic this spring, we experienced a switch to remote education halfway through our semester at The College of New Jersey. For an advanced special topics in chemical biology class, lecture and group work required changes, increasing the number of assignments as well as the level of independent thinking and application-based learning. Laboratories that revolved around a cohesive research experience where students would have synthesized, characterized and tested novel peptides using biophysical and biochemical techniques were changed in a unique way. Using research, both published and unpublished, the developed vignettes retained the learning outcomes for students and provided students background, a task, and raw, unworked data. They made predictions, worked up the data, provided conclusions, suggestions, and analysis just as they would had they obtained the data first-hand. This work describes the original course design, the adjustments to lab, lecture, and assessments, what appeared successful, and what was challenging.