I believe letting my personality shine through the way I teach “humanizes” the online learning experience. One of the ways I have tried to do this is through my office hour sessions. I have developed some ways to inject a little more of my personality and enthusiasm for vertebrate life through additional activities the students can engage with at their discretion, including: Supplementary lectures exploring certain topics in the course in more detail, such as phylogenetic reconstruction methods Software tutorials such as Mendeley citation manager and using Google Scholar to locate and browse  primary sources Livestreaming my research activities, such as preparing vertebrate natural history specimens, and talking  with students about how they could perform similar activities at home with their dissection specimens Perhaps most importantly, guided pre-exam study sessions and post-exam review sessions.      None of these activities are required of course – my goal is simply to increase th

Participating in research as an undergraduate is known to be a highly influential experience that can increase student motivation and persistence in science. In a typical undergraduate research experience, a student joins a faculty member’s research lab, and is mentored by a senior member of the lab as the student contributes to research projects. Research experience provides students an opportunity to learn if scientific research is a career they would like to pursue, and ultimately has been linked to increased graduation rates and career success.  However, not all research experiences are positive, and occasionally students end up leaving their research experiences before they graduate. Understanding why students leave can help institutions better support their student researchers, address equity and inclusion issues, and ultimately maximize student benefits from these experiences. Why does institution type matter?      While students from universities worldwide are often able to par