Mallinson Institute for Science Education, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA.
Department of Biological Sciences, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA.
Biochem Mol Biol Educ. 2023 Nov-Dec;51(6):670-677. doi: 10.1002/bmb.21780. Epub 2023 Aug 28.
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.
新冠疫情迫使教育工作者在网络环境中进行教学。对于那些教授旨在支持基础科学研究的课程的教师来说，这尤其具有挑战性。本文讲述了一位教师如何使用反向设计法将他们的基于课程的本科生研究经验（CURE）课程转变为同步在线课程的故事。在这个转变后的课程中，研究目标包括：进行文献综述、根据文献确定研究问题和假设，以及开发实用且合适的研究方法来检验这些假设。我们详细介绍了如何创建作业来引导学生完成研究设计过程，并总结了实施在线 CURE 的建议。教师提出的建议包括：构建设计、建立协作机会以及允许学生失败，以教授迭代的价值。反向设计框架自然适合于有支撑的教学方法。通过确定学习目标和最终评估，可以设计学习活动，通过有针对性的指导和协作机会来填补空白，帮助学生克服困难的概念。本课程还通过教师提供的广泛反馈和学生深化理解后修改作业的机会进行了迭代。根据课程结束时的反馈，学生总体上对这门课程的体验是积极的。未来的工作将检验学生在这种在线环境中的学习效果。
