Ian Dworkin
Biology
Course
BIO4ED3 | Evolutionary Developmental Biology | 19 students
Their story
Dr. Ian Dworkin is an Associate Professor in the Biology Department, who has a long-standing interest in teaching pedagogies that maximize student learning. The pandemic provided him with a new challenge, and he came through like a champion!
To encourage student communication in his 4th year seminar course, Dr. Dworkin used the Perusall platform. This not only facilitated asynchronous discussions, and provided a forum through which to ask and answer questions related to papers being discussed, but also served as a catalyst for raising and addressing larger conceptual questions. He also built a community within his classroom through small group discussions (of 3-4 students) in break-out rooms, before then expanding discussions to encompass the whole class.
Seminar courses typically focus on reading of the primary scientific literature. Dr. Dworkin took advantage of the virtual nature of the course, and invited the authors of the papers (from all over the world) to join the class as guests. This not only fostered unprecedented engagement (students frequently asked questions of the authors throughout the entire class time, without any instructor prompting), and made the science feel much more personal; it also served as an outstanding mechanism to illustrate the diversity of scientists working in the area (gender, BIPOC, etc.).
Dr. Dworkin effectively turned a virtual classroom into a memorable and valued teaching environment and experience, and has inspired others in the department to consider how they too can leverage the flexibility of a virtual environment, to enhance student engagement and scientific representation.