Pandemic Teaching: Creating and teaching cell biology labs online during COVID-19

The year 2020 will forever be remembered as a season of pandemic teaching due to rising COVID-19 infections. Institutions of higher learning abruptly changed from in-person to online in attempts to minimize COVID-19 spread. Due to this, we created and taught online cell biology labs in response to the COVID-19 campus shutdown. Our virtual cell biology lab course emphasized molecular and cellular biology methods that can be used to study cells. Our report includes cell biology lab descriptions, learning outcomes, skills learned, lab set up and format, virtual tools used, lab sources, and lessons learned. We show how creative online lab alternatives can provide students valuable scientific learning experiences when in-person learning is not possible.

Automated summary

The year 2020 marked a shift towards pandemic teaching in response to rising COVID-19 infections, with higher education institutions transitioning abruptly from in-person to online learning. Online cell biology labs were created and taught to provide students with valuable scientific learning experiences. This shift emphasized the importance of creative online lab alternatives when in-person learning is not feasible.