A Center for Active Learning at the Department of Biology

Today, ETH is among the worldwide leading institutions in academic teaching. To keep and possibly enhance this position, state-of-the-art teaching and the constant adaptation of ETH’s curricula is mandatory. Highly motivated and talented students are a distinguishing feature of ETH and a necessary part for excellence. Attracting these students requires the most modern, challenging and supporting learning environment.

To meet these expectations despite growing student numbers, innovative teaching approaches will be needed. The scientific and pedagogic communities agree that online learning effectively supplement traditional lecturing by providing students with opportunities to apply their knowledge and assess their understanding. Active engagement on digital educational platforms also enables detailed analytics of the learning process, which will enhance students’ performances and provide important information for curriculum development.

However, the development of outstanding, complex teaching material is challenging: First, it is highly labor-intensive and the necessary resources are limiting for most lecturers. Second, it requires solid expertise in the respective field, which cannot be provided by a central e-learning unit.

We therefore propose the establishment of “Center for Active Learning” (CAL) for the department of biology. This center will develop a learning environment with teaching material for all interested lecturers in the biology curriculum. Here, lecturers define teaching content and learning goals that are subsequently translated into active learning elements by the center’s staff. These learning elements are subsequently verified by teachers if their expectations are met. Learning analytics will serve as a quality control and will provide feedback to students and teachers on the learning gain. Such a center could serve as the basis for an ETH wide hub.

Teaching in a team (co-creation): Teaching becomes a team effort between lecturers, scientists with didactic experience and students

Unique combination of know-how of employees: knowledge and experience in technical and didactic aspects of interactive teaching methods (online and in-class)

Center as a departmental unit: collaborative network with several professors in D-BIOL supports departmental integration

Involvement of students (teaching assistants) in the design of the biology study programme (development of learning material and exercises, supervision of students in exercises and group work). The student teaching assistants receive didactic and subject-related training and are able to gain their own experience in teaching.

The active exchange between lecturers within the D-BIOL should be further enhanced, e.g. through workshops on specific didactic topics. The CAL Advisory Board (consisting of one professor from each D-BIOL institute, the head of the LET, the study director of the D-BIOL and the head of CAL) meets twice a year so that an exchange already takes place at the level of the different D-BIOL institutes.

• Very good implementation on the Moodle platform, which was extremely helpful for active engagement with the topics. Should be considered by other professors to take up this more modern type of teaching.
Student, lecture “Biology II

• Lessons were great. Engagement with the topic was much higher because the items learned were immediately applied and revised and discussed …. Great to avoid the monotony. Was fun. ”Student, lecture “Fundamentals of Biology

• «I like the concept of this lecture very much. By preparing with the documents and the quiz before each lecture, I was able to prepare well for the lecture and I could follow the lecture much better than usual. ”Student, lecture “Genetics, Genomics and Bioinformatics

• «I especially liked the variety of learning styles. Videos, Preparation, Quiz, Lecture, Summary. Should be like this in all lectures. ”Student, lecture “Biology II

• I liked the fact that one could work on the material with the help of the lessons on Moodle, because one engaged with the material so much more than if one only listened to a lecture.”Student, lecture “Fundamentals of Biology I

• «With the e-learning material I was able to grasp the topics much better.» ”Student, lecture “Fundamentals of Biology

Student feedback on teaching can be implemented directly.

Didactic training of student assistants is laborious but essential.