Aisles of freshly printed ink on large format paper are a hallmark of major scientific conferences all over the globe. Poster sessions are an arena where seasoned and budding scientists get to communicate about their work, network with peers, and determine new directions in their research. But how can we bring this icon of scientific discourse into the digital classroom? In remote and synchronous online courses, virtual poster sessions can be implemented as an assignment and exercise that allows students to practice real world skills within the community of support inside their course. Poster sessions have long been a tradition in on-ground courses, and are used to give students a taste of what scientific inquiry and discussion is like beyond the classroom. I’ve witnessed countless gatherings of excited students crowded around posters hung proudly on display in hallways at the end of term. These sessions are great practice for students who plan to go to graduate or professional schools

Despite the best efforts of the instructor or designer of a course, instructional efforts can often fall flat due to poor planning and implementation. Courses are often designed around learning materials rather than around what skills or knowledge students should have at the end of the course. This can potentially lead to disengagement from students, content bloat, burdened student cognitive loads, and ineffectual or sub-premium learning experiences. Backward Design, formalized and outlined by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe , aims to alleviate this issue through planning and consideration designed around student learning outcomes. In this TeachT@lk, Jeremy Hopper and Haily Tyler discuss the benefits of the Backward Design framework. Where to Begin? As the name would suggest, backward design starts at the end and works backward. In this case, the end is the learning objectives or learning goals. In other words, what the students should know or be able to do by the end of the course.

Imagine students sitting in a college classroom where attendance is required. The instructor is describing how the body works to maintain homeostasis and then the instructor tells a joke. How would you respond? Well, studies indicate that your response may depend on who you are. Humor as a powerful classroom tool A major objective of educators and instructors is to get students motivated and engaged in their classrooms. One way that instructors can create more engaging spaces for students is through the use of humor. Humor may be particularly helpful for science instructors to engage with students since they have been previously described by students as uninteresting and unfriendly. Humor can help instructors appear to be more relatable and like a “real person” to their students, potentially driving student motivation. However, humor has to be taken as funny for it to be an effective way to actually foster student engagement. A previous study conducted by our lab found that

If you teach a college biology course, you are probably aware that most biology majors are interested in a medical career ( Cooper et al. 2019 ). While many sub-disciplines in biology traditionally cater to the interests of students focused on medical careers, it is common for premed students to think that evolution has nothing to do with medicine. However, that is changing with the rise of a relatively new, but rapidly growing, field called evolutionary medicine (EvMed). EvMed is a discipline that applies lenses and tools from evolutionary biology and anthropology to enrich our understanding of human health and disease. It explores questions such as: Why are we more likely to develop cancer as we age? Why are certain pathologies, like obesity and autoimmune disorders, becoming increasingly common in developed nations? And why have patterns of children’s growth and development changed over the past century? Currently, over half of the major research institutions in the US now offer

Faculty and students come together in a course with assumptions and judgments that have been formed from our own experiences, as well as how we were taught in the past and how we learned. Often we forget to reflect upon the idea that no one has the same experience as we do, so we assume others are understanding or able to do the same things as we can. Especially in this remote time, we need to pause, ask questions, and seek out feedback in order to make improvements: “Does this work for you?” and “How can I make this work better for everyone?” Through reflection and implementation of changes to your course, you can begin to make your course accessible and inclusive for all. This post summarizes a virtual lunch and learn we hosted on Wednesday, April 29th, 2020. The webinar included two presentations: one from Dr. Sara Brownell , associate professor in the School of Life Sciences , and the other presentation was from Julie Allen , Instructional Designer with ASU Libraries . Future we