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.