Blended/flipped biology classes during COVID-19

Abstract

Higher education has been significantly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, disrupting universities worldwide. Unexpectedly, the global academic community was forced to transition to remote and online learning. In many cases, fragilities in the systems of the higher education institutions were exposed, pointing to the need for investment in developing more digital solutions, infrastructure, and teaching modalities. In the post-COVID-19 era, the development and adoption of robust pedagogical modalities is crucial to provide the education systems with effective strategies for designing high-quality courses. Since 2008, MOOCs have been widely used to support billions of students worldwide with flexible, accessible, and high-quality learning experiences. This study attempts to investigate the effectiveness of adopting the MOOC-based flipped approach. We present findings and lessons learned from adopting this approach in two different biology classes using the MITx online materials. Findings on students' preparedness, students' performance, MOOCs integration evaluation, and during-pandemic approach assessment are also explained. In general, the results indicated that students favored the overall experience and the implemented approach. Since the online learning is currently at an evolving stage in Egypt, we believe this study's results might be beneficial for policymakers and Egyptian education institutions in designing strategies to improve the education process.

Keywords: blended learning; flipped classroom; remote teaching.