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:
  1. Compare and contrast active learning and inclusive teaching. Know that terms are not interchangeable and explain why each is important.
  2. Define and provide examples of how instructors can practice inclusive teaching.
  3. Give examples of how inclusive teaching practices can be integrated into online active learning.
  4. List some common challenges and solutions associated with active learning.
  5. Discuss equity concerns associated with online teaching.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.