Go Virtual Unconference Panelists

BIOL 345- Comparative animal physiology
73 students
This course teaches the basic physiological concepts and processes in a wide variety of taxa. The course also covers organism interaction with its environment to maintain homeostasis and keep optimize physiological processes.

BIOL 345L- Comparative animal physiology lab (separate from course)
23 students
This course is the lab component for BIOL 345, which teaches skills through laboratory exercises. This lab also teaches transferrable skills for the future like scientific writing, communication and critical thinking.

BIOL 419- Ichthyology
35 students
his class aims to cover the diversity of all fish taxa and physiology, while providing examples with local fish. The class goal is to be able to predict a fish’s habitat, feeding strategy, swimming speed, and other life history aspects. This class also teaches fish evolutionary history and inter species relationships. In the lab portion of this class, the goal is to explore fish anatomy and physiology though dissections and zoom led activities.

BIOL 455- Marine Ecology
25 students
This class explores the biological diversity in marine ecosystems and focuses on the interactions between individuals, population and habitat. The class focuses on using local habitats as an example. There is no lab portion to this class, but there is a focus on the entire scientific process and the computer software system R for data analysis.

BIOL 490- Elasmobranch Biology
16 students
This class will focus on elasmobranch diversity, physiology, behavior and ecology. This class also aims to focus on reading current literature while evaluating the study. The class also There is an emphasis on improving student research skills for projects and tests.

BIOL 496- Undergraduate directed research with Dr. Chris Lowe
2 students
This is an undergraduate research course designed to let students research a specific topic with the help of a CSULB Faculty member.

Types of technology used:

• Zoom
• Respondus lockdown browser
• Physio Ex by pearson
• Lab material pickup aka at home labs (419)
• Powerpoint labs
• R coding

During this fall semester, I took a number of biology classes which each put forward their best effort in making online classes just as interactive and informative. I took two asynchronous classes, Comparative animal physiology and Marine Ecology, as well as three synchronous classes, Comparative Animal physiology lab, Elasmobranch biology and Ichthyology. Comparative Animal physiology is a class that teaches the basic physiological concepts and processes in a wide variety of taxa, while also covering organism interaction with its environment to maintain homeostasis and keep optimize physiological processes. My other asynchronous class is Marine Ecology which explores the biological diversity in marine ecosystems and focuses on the interactions between individuals, population and habitats- using local habitats as an example. This class also had a section of the class for coding work in R. Comparative Animal Physiology lab is one of my three synchronous classes which is the lab component for Comparative Animal physiology (they are separate classes). This class teaches skills through laboratory exercises as well as transferrable skills for the future like scientific writing, communication and critical thinking. Another one of my synchronous classes is Elasmobranch biology which focuses on elasmobranch diversity, physiology, behavior and ecology while also putting on emphasis on reading and dissecting current scientific literature. My last synchronous class is Ichthyology, where the class goals are to cover the diversity of all fish taxa and physiology, while providing examples with local fish.

When teaching asynchronous classes, I was really drawn to the flexible office hours my Marine Ecology class had. The same class had all assignments due on Friday which was very beneficial- I did not have to memorize any due dates and I could complete the class assignments when I had time. Both of my asynchronous classes have zoom office hours which is very beneficial to my learning as I like to ask questions. In my Comparative Animal physiology class, the zoom lectures were recorded and posted for us to view at our own time. The teacher wrote out notes on a tablet and voiced over while talking while using PowerPoint to supplement some of the lectures. When it comes to asynchronous classes I prefer the format of my Marine ecology class- there was no lecture, but reading, assignments, videos, discussion boards and concept maps were all involved and due at the end of the weel. I feel a bit pressured that I have to watch a lecture by a certain time when there are recorded lectures. Something else I really loved was the use of discussion boards in asynchronous classes, it made things seem a bit more normal. Even if the discussion boards were not always about the topics we were learning in class, I think they were very beneficial to my mental health and to making this semester feel “normal”.

In my synchronous classes, most of them operated the same way- log into zoom watch the lecture and leave. When teachers uploaded their slides or lecture outline before class, I find it extremely helpful. In my Comparative animal physio lab class, it was a synchronous lab with asynchronous assignments. I found this to be a bit odd as we would do an assignment related to the lab lecture but on our own at our own time. In my Elasmobranch biology class, we followed the same standard synchronous class standard. During each class period we had a student present a scientific paper that our professor recommended. I was unsure of how this would work first, but I soon became a big supporter of this idea. We were able to spend the first 15 minutes of class talking about relevant scientific literature and then have a lecture going more in depth on that topic- which gave me an idea on how a topic can be tested. I think incorporating scientific literature into a class is a great idea, especially for STEM students who want to continue their education and go onto graduate studies.

One of the biggest problems I have had this semester is with respondus lockdown browser and test format. My mac has no problem taking a test with the lockdown browser if every question is on the same page, when teachers put questions on different pages my computer begins to stall, and it costs me time on my tests which makes me very anxious. I recommend that teachers either give an extra 5 minutes or put all questions on one page. Another issue I had with one class specifically was the time for take home tests. As a perfectionist, I like to have lots of time to start my projects/writing early so I can put my best foot forward. I did not have enough time for this one class’ take home test which had 3 essay questions all requiring research and scientific paper citation, so it was very hard for me to put out work I was proud of. I would like teachers to re-evaluate the time given for take home tests and assignments, even though were are locked down I still work 15+ hours a week and I stress about deadlines. My last recommendation I can give for our educators is to please give less busy work. I know you want us to still have the workload pre-COVID but busy work is not the answer. Like I stated above, I stress about the deadlines and just try to “get the assignment done” rather than actually learn. For one of my classes, we had to key out over 60 fish species and write five details about them including pictures. This was an extremely lengthy assignment and I know I did not learn much because I was stressing about the deadline. It would be quite advantageous to extend the deadlines so us students can take our time and learn.

I did love a few things in my online classes. In one of my asynchronous classes, everything was completely at our own pace and due at the end of the week. I love this style of teaching because I don’t have to stress as much with deadlines. I am more apt to actually teach myself the material and learn on my own because I am given so much time. In both of my classes that had a lab portion (Ichthyology and Comparative animal physiology) the labs were executed as perfect as can be in this situation. In comparative animal physiology, I had an amazing TA who really went above and beyond with his demonstrations and that made the class really enjoyable. This class also used an online lab simulator- PhysioEX by Pearson. While the activities might have been redundant, I found that I learned a lot with this simulation. I highly recommend using this tool with labs. For my other laboratory class my teacher actually made us dissection kits and let us pick up specimens from campus. This was just outstanding teaching- I miss being in lab and doing the labs so much that I was happy to be able to dissect in my own home. In one of the two dissections we did, our teacher asked us to pick up a whole fish from the market so we could look at bone structure. This way any students that didn’t reside in Long Beach or couldn’t commute to campus could participate as well! The labs were led on zoom as our teacher was doing them with us. I also really loved the addition of relevant scientific papers as a supplement to what we are learning. In one of my synchronous classes we reviewed scientific papers before lecturing on the same topic. Using scientific literature in a class is a great way to increase participation and prepare us for the future. Overall, I really appreciated the flexibility my teachers had this semester with office hours and other assignments. The office hour flexibility is key, because we are no long er on campus and I know a lot of my fellow students work. Being easily reachable in an online world is key, and I appreciated all teachers who reply to my emails in a timely manner. It was also quite obvious when a professor did not want to teach on zoom, I know it’s a completely different ball game but when the educators are excited and able to involve the class- it really does make a difference.