1.1 Framework and Challenge to Instructors
In response to COVID-19, in spring, 2020 many of us rapidly took our
in-person courses to an online format. This was panic pedagogy and we
made the best of an emergency situation. Going forward, we now have a
chance to reflect and think critically about how to best develop and
deliver evolutionary and ecological content online. In this piece we
challenge instructors to use the opportunity created by the COVID-19
pandemic to rethink the way in which they teach. Let us leverage the
situation to increase use of active and inclusive practices in our
(online) classrooms. We encourage instructors to be mindful of the how
and why of their course design and to embrace active and inclusive
teaching practices.
Online teaching offers opportunities to increase equity, inclusion, and
overall teaching effectiveness, but courses must be intentionally
designed with this outcome in mind. The foci of our manuscript are
active learning and inclusive teaching in an online learning
environment. Active learning is often touted as a way to maximize course
effectiveness; enhance student learning; help students feel more
connected to their learning, their peers, and their campus; and to
increase student retention, persistence, and success. To do this,
however, effective active learning practices need to be implemented in a
thoughtful and inclusive way (Andrews et al, 2011; Michael, 2006).
Importantly, active learning is not synonymous with inclusive teaching,
as active learning is not necessarily inclusive and inclusive teaching
practices are not all active in nature. We advocate that instructors
should design their online courses with a particular focus on the
intersection between active learning and inclusive teaching (Figure 1).
Classrooms and active learning exercises that embrace inclusivity
provide a multi-pronged approach to create a student-centered learning
environment that meets goals of Vision and Change (AAAS 2011;
2015; 2018).
This manuscript aims to help instructors frame and define the concepts
of active learning and inclusive teaching in their classrooms. Just as
learning is an iterative process for students, teaching is an iterative
process for educators. We would not expect students to be able to
perfectly perform lab techniques just by reading about the methods and
background. Likewise, we cannot expect instructors to master active and
inclusive teaching by reading a few papers. True inclusive teaching will
take continued learning, effort, commitment, personal growth,
confrontation of potentially uncomfortable situations, and support from
departments and institutions. We hope this manuscript helps instructors
progress on their journey of active and inclusive teaching. In Section 1
we provide an overview of active learning and methods by which
instructors can practice inclusive teaching, in Section 2 we discuss
challenges and solutions of online and active learning, and in Section 3
we provide details for three explicit active and inclusive online
teaching strategies that can be used in ecology and evolutionary biology
courses. Our learning goals for the piece are as follows. After reading
this paper, readers will know, will have, or be able to:
- Compare and contrast active learning and inclusive teaching. Know that
terms are not interchangeable and explain why each is important.
- Define and provide examples of how instructors can practice inclusive
teaching.
- Give examples of how inclusive teaching practices can be integrated
into online active learning.
- List some common challenges and solutions associated with active
learning.
- Discuss equity concerns associated with online teaching.
- Appreciate that changing the way we teach is difficult and acknowledge
that small pieces can be adopted over time; changes do not have to
happen all at once.
- Devise a concrete action plan to incorporate active learning and
inclusive teaching practices into at least one aspect of their ecology
or evolutionary biology syllabus.