<i>Pandemic Teaching</i>: Creating and teaching cell biology labs online during <scp>COVID</scp>‐19

Tracie Delgado, Shun‐Je Bhark, Joshua Donahue

2020Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education68 citationsDOI Open Access PDF

Abstract

The year 2020 will forever be remembered as a season of pandemic teaching due to rising COVID-19 infections. Institutions of higher learning abruptly changed from in-person to online in attempts to minimize COVID-19 spread. Due to this, we created and taught online cell biology labs in response to the COVID-19 campus shutdown. Our virtual cell biology lab course emphasized molecular and cellular biology methods that can be used to study cells. Our report includes cell biology lab descriptions, learning outcomes, skills learned, lab set up and format, virtual tools used, lab sources, and lessons learned. We show how creative online lab alternatives can provide students valuable scientific learning experiences when in-person learning is not possible.

Topics & Concepts

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)PandemicVirtual labOnline learningOnline teaching2019-20 coronavirus outbreakSevere acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)Set (abstract data type)Mathematics educationComputer scienceBiologyMultimediaPsychologyVirologyMedicineInfectious disease (medical specialty)DiseaseOutbreakProgramming languagePathologyGenetics, Bioinformatics, and Biomedical ResearchBiomedical and Engineering EducationCell Image Analysis Techniques