Ovations
General Biology OER Laboratory Manual Published by Four KCC Biology Professors
Kingsborough biology professors Farshad Tamari, Kristin Polizzotto, Dmitry Brogun, and Azure Faucette have recently released a new OER, The General Biology Lab Manual, in an effort to boost online student engagement. The exercises will help to ensure that students have the most effective and accessible materials to learn at no additional cost to them.
They saw a gap that needed to be filled and decided to pool their resources and skills to create instructional materials geared specifically to online learning in an effort to ensure students receive the tools necessary to assist in their learning.
"The primary source of motivation for creating this work was the lack of education material for evolution, organismal biology and ecology labs during the pandemic for our students to use to succeed. We also wanted to alleviate the lab manual cost burden on our students, which we estimated to be more than $40,000 per year (12 sections, 25 students each section, at cost of about $150 per manual) if every student bought the lab manual,” said Farshad. "We believe that by having full and free access to the lab material, our students will perform better."
Farshad further adds, "The OER material we have created, for the most part, does not exist for free anywhere. The students (at KCC and elsewhere if the OER is adopted) get full and free access to learning materials, and we hypothesize that they are more likely to succeed with this type of access. We intend to investigate this in a pedagogical study.”
Kristin elaborated on the need to smooth the transition to virtual learning, knowing many students are challenged with the new learning modality and formulating ways in which to manage their time and focus on the work without distractions. "Our students needed a virtual lab option when we transitioned to remote learning in March 2020. The lab manuals we use in our in-person labs are written for activities that require specimens and equipment, none of which was available to students learning from home,” she explains. "We had planned for some time to move way from expensive lab manuals and produce our own lab exercises as Open Educational Resources. We feel strongly about making these important learning resources available to students at no cost. There is also the added benefit of providing them to colleagues across the world as open resources that they can use and modify in their own courses."
Their search for free, high-quality options turned up very little for students taking the second semester of introductory general biology. Most of the available lab activities (manual resources) were expensive and required equipment and specimens unavailable to students learning from home (at best and unavailable at worst due to equipment requirements.)
"We also went to some lengths to ensure that the resources comply with accessibility standards, so that a wide range of learners can use them,” added Kristin.
In the 2018 New York State Open Educational Resources (OER) City University of New York (CUNY) report, a Kingsborough Community College student was quoted, "I can work as many jobs as I can but [the high cost of textbooks] is still going to affect me. If I'm able to pay the tuition, I won't pay for the textbooks. If I pay for the textbooks, I won't have enough money for tuition.”
Dmitry echoed the sentiments of the team. "We are providing our KCC students with a high-quality, accessibility-friendly laboratory manual that will help our students to achieve their academic goals during this difficult time and beyond."
The project is funded by the CUNY OER grant. The manual is available HERE.