Introduction
Online learning has been on the rise in degree-granting universities
over the last decade (Seaman et al. , 2018) and describes courses
thoughtfully designed to deliver learning materials and support students
attending the courses mostly or fully online, either asynchronously or
synchronously (Means et al. , 2014; Seaman et al. , 2018;
Hodges et al. , 2020). A benefit of online learning is that it
allows for higher student enrollment, with students having a higher
degree of place and time flexibility to take these classes. All of these
factors are especially relevant for students who are in learning abroad
programs, are athletes, have disabilities, or are working (Meanset al. , 2014; Branch & Dousay, 2015).
The flexibility of offering online course options became critical with
the need for social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic. In March
2020, students in North America, and many around the world, returned to
their places of residence and transitioned to remote instruction to
complete courses in progress. Because this was a temporary fix to
disruption of face-to-face courses and instructors did not often have
time or training to design a thoughtful online course, this form of
instruction is often described as remote instruction (Hodges et
al. , 2020). Remote instruction recapitulates the face-to-face course
but does not necessarily implement online course design elements to
facilitate learning (Means et al. , 2014; Hodges et al. ,
2020).
While remote instruction during COVID-19 was necessary, it has
limitations. One of the main limitations is inherent to remote
instruction, during an emergency few instructors had the time to
thoroughly consider or implement online tools designed to improve
learning in an online environment. Careful course design is especially
important because student retention rates are low in online offerings –
a trend that is usually linked to a lack of student engagement,
accountability, and sense of belonging within the class (O’Keeffe, 2013;
Zhu et al. , 2020). Instructors of remote instruction were also
adjusting to having fewer opportunities for immediate feedback to help
resolve students’ misunderstandings which imposes barriers to achieve
positive learning outcomes (Kim et al. , 2005; Clark et
al. , 2018). Currently, 23% of over 1000 universities in the USA are
planning to switch to hybrid or fully online courses during the Fall
term of 2020 (Chronicle Staff, 2020). To maintain the quality of our
teaching, it is essential that these courses move beyond remote
instruction to use online course design tools that provide adequate
learning support to undergraduates in the online classroom (Meanset al. , 2014; Branch & Dousay, 2015).
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, we worked on addressing some of the
remote instruction and online learning pitfalls by purposefully
designing an online introductory level evolution and biodiversity course
using a Team-Based Learning (TBL) approach. When remote instruction was
mandated in March 2020, we were undergoing our third term teaching the
online course in parallel to the face-to-face course (See timeline in
Figure 1), and we scaled up our efforts to accommodate all face-to-face
students in our online platform for the remainder of the semester. Here,
we discuss our successful use of TBL in a large face-to-face
introductory life science course and how we adapted it to the online
platform. We describe pedagogical and technical tools used, as well as
the perceived challenges and benefits of implementing TBL in an online
course. We also provide a summary of helpful practices and useful
literature for those interested in implementing team-based approaches in
an online platform.