The goals of this special issue
This pandemic has forced many–if not most–of us to reconsider how we communicate information. The Academic Practice section ofEcology and Evolution was developed to explore how we do things in our disciplines (Moore et al. 2017). This special issue of Academic Practice provides a forum for our community to present experiences and ideas about the best practices for moving our disciplines online in a focused, accessible, and clearly organized manner. The ultimate purpose was “to provide a rapid outlet to share timely innovations and discoveries for online teaching and learning in ecology and evolution.” However, the pandemic has reached every corner of our society and will change more than just course delivery. Thus, this special issue also covers issues related to meetings and conferences, development of scientific products, strategies to promote open science, how we can best promote equity, diversity and inclusion in the transition to remote instruction, and engaging non-academic audiences. We wanted the contributions to be a resource for the ecology and evolutionary biology communities as a whole as we adapt to the COVID-19 crisis, so we emphasized rapid handling of manuscripts, short contributions, and inclusion of tools and resources that facilitate adoption. We have already accepted contributions related to x (e.g., cite), y (e.g., cite), z (e.g., cite), contributions highlighting sources of inequity and strategies to be more inclusive in online delivery (e.g., cite), and ideas for use of tools, apps, and novel media to enhance engagement (e.g., cite). The COVID-19 crisis demanded action, and with over 40 submissions to this special issue by our community, you have risen to the occasion. We applaud members of our community for contributing their ideas and experiences in this forum and hope that this special issue provides a start to a rich literature base to take learning online in ecology and evolution and beyond.