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Using Zoom to Effectively Manage Class Debates in an Ethical Issues in Biology Course
Author(s) -
Halpin Patricia
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.2021.35.s1.01499
Subject(s) - zoom , class (philosophy) , modalities , medical education , psychology , internet privacy , computer science , sociology , medicine , engineering , artificial intelligence , social science , petroleum engineering , lens (geology)
The COVID‐19 pandemic forced instructors to move their courses to online modalities and many continue to struggle to deliver course content in effective ways. The purpose of this intervention was to use Zoom to effectively manage two separate class debates in an Ethical Issues in Biology course. This course is a requirement for the BS in Biotechnology and is usually offered in a hybrid accelerated mode. In the fall of 2020, it was switched to Zoom remote modality which replaced the Face‐to‐Face (F2F) portion of this accelerated course. By design, the course is limited to 12 students and they were divided into two debate teams. In the F2F mode each team would align their chairs to face each other during the debate. Currently Zoom does not have the capability to mimic this team alignment. To increase student engagement and differentiate between the two teams, each team chose a team color, a team name and a mascot. With these decisions made the Black Panthers chose to wear black shirts while the Platypi wore white shirts. The first debate topic was organ transplants and the Black Panthers defended the position that the organ should go to the first match at the top of the list with no exceptions. The Platypi defended the position that there should be exceptions made to allow a patient to receive an organ when they are not at the top of the list. The Black Panthers won the coin toss and each member presented evidence to support their position then the Platypi followed suit. After each team had presented their position time was allotted for rebuttal. To prevent students from talking over each other the instructor moderated this portion of the debate by calling on the students who raised their hands. Two weeks later the second debate on genetic privacy was held with a volley format. The Black Panthers defended the position that individuals own their own DNA and do not have to provide it for any reason. The Platypi defended the position that the law of the land supersedes individual rights and compliance is mandatory. In the volley format one member of the Platypi stated their position followed by a Black Panther and continued in this alternating volley format until all team members had stated their positions and a rebuttal followed. While both methods of debate were effective in engaging the class, the students preferred the volley style. Having the students wear team colors was very effective in being able to differentiate the team members. One additional benefit to using Zoom for this activity is that the instructor could see the students’ names to call on them in an efficient manner. Using team names, team colors and the volley format the class debates successfully engaged the students and were delivered in an effective manner via Zoom.