{"title":"Blended/flipped biology classes during COVID-19","authors":"Iman Mostafa, Andreas Kakarougkas","doi":"10.1002/bmb.21753","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>Higher education has been significantly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, disrupting universities worldwide. Unexpectedly, the global academic community was forced to transition to remote and online learning. In many cases, fragilities in the systems of the higher education institutions were exposed, pointing to the need for investment in developing more digital solutions, infrastructure, and teaching modalities. In the post-COVID-19 era, the development and adoption of robust pedagogical modalities is crucial to provide the education systems with effective strategies for designing high-quality courses. Since 2008, MOOCs have been widely used to support billions of students worldwide with flexible, accessible, and high-quality learning experiences. This study attempts to investigate the effectiveness of adopting the MOOC-based flipped approach. We present findings and lessons learned from adopting this approach in two different biology classes using the MITx online materials. Findings on students' preparedness, students' performance, MOOCs integration evaluation, and during-pandemic approach assessment are also explained. In general, the results indicated that students favored the overall experience and the implemented approach. Since the online learning is currently at an evolving stage in Egypt, we believe this study's results might be beneficial for policymakers and Egyptian education institutions in designing strategies to improve the education process.</p>","PeriodicalId":8830,"journal":{"name":"Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education","volume":"51 5","pages":"540-547"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2000,"publicationDate":"2023-06-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education","FirstCategoryId":"95","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/bmb.21753","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"BIOCHEMISTRY & MOLECULAR BIOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Higher education has been significantly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, disrupting universities worldwide. Unexpectedly, the global academic community was forced to transition to remote and online learning. In many cases, fragilities in the systems of the higher education institutions were exposed, pointing to the need for investment in developing more digital solutions, infrastructure, and teaching modalities. In the post-COVID-19 era, the development and adoption of robust pedagogical modalities is crucial to provide the education systems with effective strategies for designing high-quality courses. Since 2008, MOOCs have been widely used to support billions of students worldwide with flexible, accessible, and high-quality learning experiences. This study attempts to investigate the effectiveness of adopting the MOOC-based flipped approach. We present findings and lessons learned from adopting this approach in two different biology classes using the MITx online materials. Findings on students' preparedness, students' performance, MOOCs integration evaluation, and during-pandemic approach assessment are also explained. In general, the results indicated that students favored the overall experience and the implemented approach. Since the online learning is currently at an evolving stage in Egypt, we believe this study's results might be beneficial for policymakers and Egyptian education institutions in designing strategies to improve the education process.
期刊介绍:
The aim of BAMBED is to enhance teacher preparation and student learning in Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and related sciences such as Biophysics and Cell Biology, by promoting the world-wide dissemination of educational materials. BAMBED seeks and communicates articles on many topics, including:
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Research in biochemistry and molecular biology education.
Reviews on emerging areas of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology to provide background for the preparation of lectures, seminars, student presentations, dissertations, etc.
Historical Reviews describing "Paths to Discovery".
Novel and proven laboratory experiments that have both skill-building and discovery-based characteristics.
Reviews of relevant textbooks, software, and websites.
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Descriptions of multimedia materials such as tutorials on various aspects of biochemistry and molecular biology.