A toolbox for digitally enhanced teaching in synthetic biology

Abstract

The global pandemic of COVID-19 has forced educational provision to suddenly shift to a digital environment all around the globe. During these extraordinary times of teaching and learning both the challenges and the opportunities of embedding technologically enhanced education permanently became evident. Even though reinforced by constraints due to the pandemic, teaching through digital tools increases the portfolio of approaches to reach learning outcomes in general. In order to reap the full benefits, this Minireview displays various initiatives and tools for distance education in the area of Synthetic Biology in higher education while taking into account specific constraints of teaching Synthetic Biology from a distance, such as collaboration, laboratory and practical experiences. The displayed teaching resources can benefit current and future educators and raise awareness about a diversified inventory of teaching formats as a starting point to reflect upon one's own teaching and its further advancement.

SynBio in 3D: The first synthetic genetic circuit as a 3D printed STEM educational resource

“…Indeed, progress in teaching synthetic biology has resulted in the incorporation of new resources, such as virtual laboratories, software for simulating molecular structures, and interactive experimental methods (Huang et al, 2018;Lineback and Jansma, 2019;Muth et al, 2021). Additionally, 3D printed molecular structures are now shown to be also a valuable tool in improving synthetic biology education.…”

“…To date, efforts have been made to incorporate novel resources into synthetic biology education, such as software for molecular structure simulation and visualization, virtual labs, and virtual gaming environments (Muth et al, 2021). For example, the Pymol software helps in understanding protein shapes and their relation to specific functions, and is used by molecular science instructors for visualization and computation of structures (Lineback and Jansma, 2019).…”

Impacto de la gamificación en el aprendizaje de estudiantes universitarios

“…Esta nueva realidad suscitó el interés de numerosos investigadores, quienes llevaron a cabo pruebas en entornos digitales con diversas herramientas, las cuales se tradujeron en publicaciones que ampliaron la cantidad de evidencia sobre la aplicación de la educación gamificada (Ahmad et al, 2022;Muth et al, 2021;Park y Kim, 2019;Zhang et al, 2021).…”

Instructors and Underrepresented Students in Microbiology: Educational Digital Tool Use, Trends, Perceptions, and Success

“…Kitney and Freemont, 2012). In this review, various tools, and resources for digitally enhanced and distance education, such as Mass Open Online Courses (MOOC), gamification, virtual student competitions, wet lab simulators and virtual labs, social media, online discussions and debates, YouTube playlists and podcasts, virtual lectures, and virtual laboratories, were reviewed, organized, and evaluated for strengths and shortcomings in a virtual environment Muth et al (2021). provided educators with a "diversified toolbox" of examples of digital tools, strategies, and resources for the design and implementation practices for their own virtual learning environment.…”