Redevelopment of undergraduate food microbiology capstone projects for unprecedented emergency remote teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic: then and now
Yianna Zhang A and Chaminda Senaka Ranadheera A *A School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences, Faculty of Science, The University of Melbourne, Vic. 3010, Australia.
Yianna Zhang is a PhD candidate and an academic support in food sciences at the University of Melbourne. |
Dr Senaka Ranadheera is a food microbiologist and innovative educator. His research interests focus on probiotics and prebiotic food applications. |
Microbiology Australia 44(3) 140-143 https://doi.org/10.1071/MA23041
Submitted: 12 June 2023 Accepted: 1 July 2023 Published: 14 July 2023
© 2023 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of the ASM. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)
Abstract
Unprecedented emergency remote teaching (ERT) during the COVID-19 lockdowns has hindered research-based learning in the life sciences worldwide, holding potential consequences for the students’ ability to develop essential skills for the contemporary workforce. In this article, we report redevelopment of an undergraduate capstone subject in the food science major at The University of Melbourne for bichronous ERT delivery, which previously aimed to provide students with analytical, problem-solving and communication skills through laboratory-based practical experimentation or internship projects. When in-person exchanges became unfeasible during 2020, we redesigned the online learning environment to best facilitate personalised learning and collaborative relationships between learners, instructors and subject content. This includes the redevelopment of laboratory-based projects as data mining or literature reviews delivered under four major themes including food microbiology. Despite the drawbacks in peer-based interactions through remote delivery, participation in design-based research remains a viable approach to support students in gaining essential transferrable skills during ERT.
Keywords: emergency remote teaching, food microbiology, food science, microbiology education, online delivery, research-based learning.
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