Virtual and in-person teaching and learning activities for core food science courses

Food Science is a relatively small yet critical field of science that covers a wide array of topic areas, ranging from food chemistry to microbiology to processing to sensory science to product development, just to name a few. Accordingly, it can often be difficult for food science instructors to connect with other instructors who teach similar courses and to locate teaching resources for the specific topic areas that they teach. This can be especially challenging for instructors who wish to utilize realistic industry case studies in their courses, but who do not have prior food industry work experience. Lastly, more recently, food science instructors have been faced with the challenge of reinventing critical hands-on student learning experiences for the online environment due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To help assist food science instructors with transitioning their course learning activities to the online format and to broaden their repertoire of food science related learning activities, IFT's Education, Extension, and Outreach Division (EEOD) organized a virtual faculty networking event (IFT, 2020) where instructors shared how they transitioned their food science courses online and what innovative and engaging course activities they use to facilitate student learning in their courses. This Guest Editorial aims to summarize the ideas shared and generated from this event and highlight other online teaching resources available to food science instructors that can be used for both online and in-person courses.

Below is a summary of the ideas shared and generated within the four categorical breakout rooms at the virtual event. Full URLs to access the resources shared at this event can be found at the end of this article (Supplemental Material #1). Please note that due to limited representation from Food Laws, Regulation, and Quality Assurance, participants interested in this breakout room were asked to select an alternative room. Additional food science course learning resources for instructors, shared with or created previously by IFT's EEOD are also shared at the end of this article as Supplemental Material #2.

One of the largest challenges impacting food microbiology and safety courses during the pandemic has been the loss of in-person laboratory experiences. To recreate this experience, one attendee shared how they had students conduct at home food fermentation projects (wine, hard-apple cider, cheese, kombucha, yogurt, kimchi, sauerkraut, kefir) to apply and visualize the concepts taught in class. Other attendees shared virtual environmental monitoring and seafood sanitation inspection exercises, and e-learning modules for quality control and food safety issues associated with ice cream and artisan cheese production that include videos, interactive knowledge checks, case studies, and audit exercises (Supplemental Material #1 - Food Microbiology tab).

Plant tours are also known to be a critical learning experience for undergraduate food science students. While the pandemic has prevented students from visiting food production facilities, increasing class sizes and stricter food safety preventive measures also present barriers to students attending food plant tours. To overcome these challenges, one attendee shared a variety of virtual reality tours of food and beverage processing plants that can be used to supplement student learning in most food science courses (Supplemental Material #1 - Food Microbiology tab). In these virtual tours, students are able to decide how they would like to move through the plant and direct their own pace and learning.

Case studies are great learning tools that allow students to apply their food science knowledge to solve real problems that could be encountered in the food industry. Designing engaging and relevant case studies takes a great deal of time and creativity. Attendees shared an online repository of food science case studies as well as some that they created themselves (available upon request - see Supplemental Material #1 - Food Microbiology tab) that involve foodborne outbreaks aboard a cruise ship and within an automated sandwich production facility.

Other ideas shared included assignments where students need to explain whether they think a microorganism will grow, survive, or die in a given situation and why; and where students are provided with a recipe and in groups need to write a narrative of how to perform the recipe in the riskiest way possible (Recipe Gone Wrong), noting which pathogen(s) would be of highest concern and why.

Attendees reported using an assortment of tools for student interaction and collaboration. Some examples are Perusall as a discussion forum on a given prompt, Illinois Wiki as a collaboration tool to share biweekly personal action plans within a team using Jamboard and Google Drive.

Experiential learning gives students the opportunity to connect what they learned in a course with concrete experience in real-life. This learning approach is frequently used in food chemistry and analysis courses. An attendee shared that their students first prepare recipes in which ingredients are modified or substituted, then students reflect on how the final product characteristics are affected by the different ingredients. In a subsequent assignment, students create zines (small-circulation digital magazines) about ingredients in packaged foods distributed at their local food bank and food pantries to help consumers better understand the list of ingredients in the food distributed at those locations. Attendees also shared that they have students create infographics/infomercials about popular beverages to gain experience providing a technical explanation to a lay audience while also creating a visually appealing resource.

Other activities being used by the attendees included inviting guest speakers that are experts in topics related to the course, asking students to create and record video presentations, instructors recording laboratory exercises for students to watch synchronously or asynchronously, and students reviewing asynchronous lecture material prior to attending in-person labs.

Plant tours are ideal in teaching food processing and engineering. Since visiting manufacturing facilities is not possible at the moment due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some attendees reported using virtual tours instead. Some tours are available upon request (see Supplemental Material #1 - Food Processing tab) and others can be accessed from the Gallery page on Clint Stevenson (n.d.) Lab website, including tours of a brewery, ice cream manufacturing facility, and pilot plant.

Adapting interactive problem-solving exercises for the remote learning environment can be challenging. To help replace some of these activities, instructors used food processing and engineering online simulations (see Supplemental Material #2 - Lab Simulations and Modules) and assigned exercises to students that required them to record a video that describes how they would go about solving a specific food processing or engineering problem.

Similarly, in-person pilot plant experiences are limited at the moment. Attendees shared that to help substitute these critical learning opportunities for students, they have used e-learning modules, pre-lab modules, virtual experiments, YouTube videos, and example problem video tutorials (see Supplemental Material #2). In particular, Dr. Paul Singh's virtual experiments in food processing (Singh, 2013) have been extensively used to teach heat balance and heat transfer. An attendee also reported having students make yogurt at home and then discuss as a class the product's characteristics, processing conditions, and sensory analysis as a means of teaching food processing in an interactive way.

There are a variety of approaches that can be used to teach food product development, with some institutions offering the theoretical and hands-on aspects separately (different courses) and others having one course that covers both theory and hands-on activities.

One course activity that attendees agreed has worked well for them is inviting industry personnel with experience in R&D, to participate in the class. The roles of the industry members range from providing a 10-min summary of their career path and how they obtained their current position, to serving as mentors for student group projects throughout a semester.

Student group activities and projects involving developing a food concept or product are known to be critical learning experiences in food product development courses. Attendees shared that in their courses they have students write a project brief on the product they have developed, and that they also have students or student groups evaluate each other's products with respect to the course's food product development project assessment rubric and the likelihood of the product's feasibility and success in the market.

Lastly, product development attendees discussed the importance of developing a standardized food product development curriculum to support instructors and improve student education. Previously, some attendees and additional faculty members gathered in Fall 2020 to exchange course notes and brainstorm ideas together. This resulted in a collaboration to develop a free online product development library for instructors teaching food product development. More details on this resource will be shared with the IFT and JFSE community as it becomes available.

All participants, regardless of their breakout room selection, were also asked to share the types of laboratory experiments that they conduct with their students, including both in-person and/or virtually. Ideas were provided for food microbiology and safety, food chemistry and analysis, and food processing and engineering and are summarized in the following lists. Links to a variety of virtual food science laboratory resources are available in Supplemental Material #2.