Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic posed, and continues to pose, many challenges to teaching and learning, most notably the need to pivot from traditional in-person course instruction and experiences to entirely virtual course delivery while maintaining course rigor and quality. Our guiding principle for course modification was the critical need for an equitable, accessible, engaging, and motivating learning experience for students that maintained the learning outcomes and objectives of the course in a fully virtual and digitized format. This paper illustrates the evidence-based approach that the instructional team of a first-year biology experiential learning course took in response to the need for instruction to occur in virtual space and time for the Fall 2020 (September to December 2020) semester.
Highlights
Postsecondary education instructors are challenged with maintaining program and course content relevance while using innovative teaching strategies and contemporary technologies to keep curriculum and teaching current and engaging
We focused on student support, especially in the realm of mental health and wellness, because declining student mental health, exacerbated by conditions created by the pandemic, is known to negatively affect student health and academic performance, and increase attrition (Wyatt, Oswalt, & Ochoa, 2017)
To create a community of learners, the teaching team used discussion boards within the course Learning Management System (LMS). These discussion boards allowed students to ask questions outside of the synchronous course time and students were encouraged to answer questions posed by their peers
Summary
Postsecondary education instructors are challenged with maintaining program and course content relevance while using innovative teaching strategies and contemporary technologies to keep curriculum and teaching current and engaging. Of particular importance to overcoming these challenges in first-year postsecondary education is the need to support students in learning the skills necessary to succeed (McIntosh & Barden, 2019) while building a social network to allow them to develop a sense of belonging (O’Keeffe, 2013) These elements reduce attrition and contribute to student academic success. In an in-person offering, seminars scaffold scientific inquiry and the scientific method, and students use data collected during the urban forest fieldwork to complete the capstone activity (the Forest Fragmentation Assignment (FFA), which is designed to allow students to practice and demonstrate their skills in data collection, visualisation, and interpretation of findings This course was designed using several of the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL; e.g. creating cooperative learning groups with clear expectations (CAST, 2018)), and other evidence-based pedagogical principles We accomplished our goals by employing a Pedagogy of Kindness (Gorny-Wegrzyn & Perry, 2021; Hativa, Barak, & Simhi, 2001; Rawle, 2021, as cited in Hariri, 2021; Serbati, Aquario, Re, Paccagnella, & Felisatti, 2020), innovative digital technology, and an accessible citizen science bonus activity for students that, taken together, increased opportunities for student engagement, critical thinking, and application of knowledge
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