Pandemic adaptations expand physiology educators community outreach.

INTRODUCTION

The Physiology Educators Community of Practice (PECOP) was launched in 2014 by the American Physiological Society (APS) to encourage physiology educators at all education levels to identify and share best practices for teaching physiology, promote the scholarship of teaching and learning, and build collaborations for improvement of student learning (1–3). Typical PECOP events, activities, and forums are listed in Table 1 (see Refs. 4–6 for additional information online). Those who participate in PECOP events or forums are considered PECOP “members.”

Table 1.

PECOP activities and events

Activity	Description
Institute on Teaching and Learning (ITL) (4)	A biennial teaching meeting sponsored by APS to encourage physiology educators at all education levels to identify and share best practices for teaching physiology, promote the scholarship of teaching and learning, and build collaborations for improvement of student learning
PECOP Blog (5)	Blog entries detail physiology educators’ perspectives on educational issues including education transformation, developing and using core concepts and competencies, using evidence-based innovations in student-centered learning, aligning teaching and assessment, building educational research skills, facilitating educational research collaboration, and publishing and funding educational research.
PECOP Fellows: 2014, 2016, and 2018	This program provided community college faculty with support to attend the ITL and participate in ongoing professional development activities.
TEBioED Fellows; TEBioED Professional Skills Training Course (6)	This fellowship and course are designed for early-career educators who are interested in improving their physiology teaching skills.
Research collaborations	PECOP members are encouraged to develop collaborative educational research projects, to present their findings at the ITL or APS meetings, and to publish their findings in scholarly journals such as Advances in Physiology Education.
Teaching collaborations	PECOP members are encouraged to develop collaborative teaching projects and to share methods, materials, feedback, and results at ITL meetings, scholarly or teaching journals, and the PECOP blog and webinars.
Encouraging SoTL and DBER	PECOP members are encouraged to engage in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) and Discipline-Based Education Research (DBER). Resources and ideas are provided through the PECOP blog, ITL meetings and webinars, and Advances in Physiology Education.

Like other professional societies, the APS’s normal activities were deeply impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. In this editorial, we describe how pandemic-driven changes to two major PECOP events provided unforeseen short- and long-term benefits. Specifically, we discuss how adapting PECOP events to virtual formats increased participation and inspired the development of additional opportunities for connection and collaboration among physiology educators.

THE INSTITUTE ON TEACHING AND LEARNING

The APS Institute on Teaching and Learning (ITL) is the most visible PECOP activity. It serves to attract and engage new PECOP participants as well as provide professional development, networking, and collaboration opportunities for current PECOP members. Started in 2014, the Institute is a 4-day meeting held biennially on even-numbered years with registration open to all. Promotion is targeted toward current PECOP members, APS members, and members of the broader physiology and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) educator communities. International attendees have been encouraged to participate, but they have accounted for <10% of attendees at ITL meetings. Details on the origins of the ITL meetings and their relationship to PECOP were published previously (1–3).

The ITL is somewhat unique among STEM teaching conferences in that it focuses on building connections and collaborations among physiology educators as well as promoting the sharing of evidence-based teaching practices. In a typical year, the ITL provides plenary talks, workshops, and posters focused on physiology education. Sessions model innovative teaching ideas that participants can implement in their own classrooms. To broaden participant knowledge of evidence-based educational initiatives across the disciplines, presenters include not only physiology educators but also other experts in evidence-based teaching practices. Significant time is allocated to discussions at breaks, mealtimes, and poster sessions. Mealtime discussions are sometimes organized by topic tables with discussion leaders, but spontaneous topics and tables are common as well. The meeting is scheduled in June, after the spring semester ends for most physiology educators. This encourages educators from a variety of institution types to participate. Through attending the plenary presentations, participating in interactive workshops, and interacting with presenters and other attendees at thematic poster sessions, ITL participants gain teaching strategies and skills they can take with them as they return to their home institutions and build connections with other members of the community for research and teaching collaborations.

The 2020 ITL originally was scheduled for June 22–26, 2020 at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. The planned schedule included an opening night keynote address followed by three days of plenary talks, concurrent workshops, and evening poster and group discussions. As usual, the conference would conclude with a morning plenary session and a large-group discussion. Two new features were planned:

Strategies/Tools for Teaching Specific Physiological Concepts Workshops, featuring topics identified by previous participants as difficult to teach or learn (e.g., cell signaling, cardiac cycle, action potentials, and concentration of urine in the mammalian kidney); and

A preconference 1-day workshop for “new” teachers of physiology (e.g., early-career educators, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows) that continued through the conference with recommended plenary sessions and workshops on several themes (inclusive teaching/mentoring, teaching strategies/tools, courses/curriculum, and professional development).

Pandemic Adaptations

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the planned ITL program was canceled. The conference organizers took a proactive approach to creating an alternative to the traditional meeting. They chose to

Create a webinar series to capture key aspects of the planned content rather than attempting to convert the entire 2020 ITL into a virtual format;

Create, promote, and implement a Virtual ITL Week (7) with daily 2-hour interactive sessions via Zoom;

Make all sessions free to educators at all types of institutions around the world but require preregistration;

Select topics for the interactive sessions from the original ITL conference schedule; and

Focus on topics that would likely be of interest to a broad group of physiology educators.

Plenary speakers were contacted about their interest in leading a Virtual ITL Week session. Table 2 shows the program for 2020 Virtual ITL Week.

Table 2.

Schedule for 2020 Virtual ITL Week

June	Session Title	Presenter
22	The Future of Learning in Physiology (8)	Mary Pat Wenderoth, PhD, University of Washington
23	The Flexibility of Using the Flipped Classroom as a Virtual Classroom during the COVID-19 Pandemic (9)	Chaya Gopalan, PhD, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
24	Investigating Inclusive Curricula in the Physiology Classroom: Scientist Spotlight Homework Assignments (10)	Jeff Schinske, MS, Foothill College Monica Cardenas Guzman, De Anza College
25	Teaching Small Group Dynamics to Ensure Small Groups Are Dynamic!	Mari Hopper, PhD, Sam Houston State University
26	Identifying and Assessing Learning Outcomes That Matter (11)	Raymond Shaw, PhD, Merrimack College

Participation

Over the course of 2020 Virtual ITL Week, 491 unique attendees registered for sessions. There were five sessions during the week, and people could register for any number of sessions; thus, total registration numbers are greater than the number of unique attendees. Registrations per session ranged from 287 to 443. Total registration numbers for the entire week included 1,000 APS members (56%), 700 nonmembers (40%), and 72 (4%) who were “unsure.” Throughout the week, 36 countries were represented, ranging from 19 to 33 countries on a given day. On average over 5 days, 73% of the participants were from the United States, 7% were from India, and 5% were from Canada; other countries with substantial representation included Australia, Brazil, Nigeria, Pakistan, and the United Kingdom. These numbers are vastly different from previous ITL meetings, where typical attendance was ∼100 participants and international participants accounted for <10% of attendees. With the ITL offered on a virtual platform with free registration, the overall number of educators participating increased by nearly fivefold (400%) and the percentage of non-United States participants more than doubled (from <10% to 23%). Additionally, free registration encouraged educators in other STEM areas and from other global physiology societies to join and contribute to the conversations during the breakout room discussions.

A variety of institutions were represented among the participants in the virtual ITL, and educators at different stages of their career paths attended (see Tables 3 and 4).

Table 3.

Institution types represented among the participants in 2020 Virtual ITL Week

Institution Type	Participants, %
Primarily undergraduate institution (PUI)	26
Professional schools	24
Graduate schools	21
Undergraduate research institution	20
Community colleges	8
K-12	1

Table 4.

Position titles for participants in 2020 Virtual ITL Week

Title	Participants, %
Professor	26
Associate professor	24
Assistant professor	22
Lecturer/instructor	10
Other (e.g., lab supervisor/director/coordinator)	5
Student/graduate student	4
Dean	3
Postdoctoral fellow	3
Research fellow/scientist/associate	2
Teacher	1

Feedback

At the end of Virtual ITL Week, APS administered a survey to collect feedback about the event; 159 attendees completed the survey. Overall, feedback was very positive. Nearly all respondents (94%) reported they had gained at least one new idea for teaching, and 33% had gained four or more new ideas. Nearly two-thirds (63%) would recommend the ITL to a friend or colleague. When asked what types of future institutes (ITLs) the participants would be interested in attending, 55% of respondents would attend a face-to-face institute; 91% would attend an all-virtual (online) institute; and 60% would attend a hybrid (combination of face to face and virtual) institute.

TEACHING EXPERIENCES IN BIOLOGY EDUCATION FELLOWS PROGRAM

The second PECOP activity that was highly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic was the Teaching Experiences in Biology Education (TEBioED) Fellows Program. TEBioED Fellows were graduate students or postdoctoral fellows who were interested in improving their teaching skills. The program was supported by a National Institutes of Health National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) conference grant and was originally designed as a separate 1-day pre-ITL workshop. When the ITL moved to an online format, the TEBioED program was modified to include monthly synchronous, large-group virtual sessions; asynchronous discussion boards; and regular individual mentor-mentee pair meetings. The monthly session topics followed the principles of backward design, starting with attempting to understand the diverse backgrounds and circumstances of students and building toward creating and selecting classroom activities.

Twenty-three graduate students and postdoctoral fellows applied for the fellowship, and ten Fellows (8 graduate students and 2 postdoctoral fellows) were selected. Notably, >40 educators from around the world volunteered to mentor the TEBioED Fellows during the program. All Fellows indicated that they were interested in future positions that emphasize teaching. Each Fellow was matched with a mentor who had experience teaching at an institution type similar to the one where the Fellow hoped to find a position in the future. Evaluation results from the fellowship program are in preparation for publication.

LONG-TERM IMPACTS

Adapting the ITL and TEBioED Fellows Program to take place during the pandemic provided significant opportunities for growth and diversity of PECOP participants, especially in engaging non-APS members and international educators. To capitalize on that momentum, APS and ITL organizers created both an ongoing webinar series and a professional development program, as described below.

PECOP Webinar Series

The 2020 ITL organizers wanted to keep PECOP members involved beyond Virtual ITL Week, especially with the challenging semesters of teaching that most educators were facing. Building off the success of the Virtual ITL Week, the Physiology Educators Community of Practice (PECOP) Webinar Series (12) was created. This monthly series included live webinars focused on education best practices, synchronous and/or asynchronous teaching, establishing inclusive classrooms, and publishing (Table 5). The initial webinar series spanned 5 months following Virtual ITL Week and attracted >750 total participants (ranged from 70 to 171 participants per webinar), including participants from 12.7 countries on average (ranged from 5 to 20 countries per webinar).

Table 5.

PECOP Webinar Series

	Session Title	Presenter
2020
July	What To Do on the First Day of Class: Insights from Physiology Educators	Barbara E. Goodman, PhD, Sanford School of Medicine of the University of South Dakota
		Dee Silverthorn, PhD, University of Texas-Austin
August	A Successful Semester: Applying Resilient and Inclusive Pedagogy to Mitigate Faculty and Student Stress	Josef Brandauer, PhD, Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania
		Katie Johnson, PhD, Trail Build LLC, Wisconsin
September	Writing and Reviewing for Advances in Physiology Education	Doug Everett, PhD, National Jewish Health in Denver
October	A Framework of College Student Buy-in to Evidence-based Teaching Practices in STEM: the Roles of Trust and Growth Mindset	Mark Graham, PhD, Yale University
November	Educators Town Hall	Multiple discussion leaders
2021
January	Remote Products and Instruction for A&P in the Age of COVID-19	Jennie Baker, MBA, MP, Carolina Biological Supply Company
		Candace Berkeley, MS, Carolina Biological Supply Company
March	Engaging, Supporting and Assessing Students in a Pandemic-Challenged World	Julia Choate, Monash University at Melbourne, Australia
		Patricia Halpin, University of New Hampshire
July	Worldwide Alternatives to Physiology Education: Access and Inequity (in collaboration with the APS Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee)	Camilo Lellis-Santos, PhD, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Brazil
		Nouralsalhin Abdalhamid Alaagib, PhD, Faculty of Medicine University of Khartoum, Sudan
September	Self-Regulated Learning: a Discussion on Implementation to Improve Student Performance	Donald Shaw, PhD, University of Tennessee at Martin
November	What Do We Keep? Lessons Learned from Remote Teaching and Learning	Cynthia Metz, PhD, University of Louisville School of Medicine

The July 2020 webinar focused on tips and suggestions for what to do on the first day of class. The topics for August-October were chosen from the original ITL conference schedule and included sessions on inclusive teaching strategies to promote student learning and minimize stress, writing and reviewing for Advances in Physiology Education, and the roles of trust and growth mindset for student buy-in to evidence-based teaching practices. The November webinar was an “Educators Town Hall” where participants informally shared challenges and successes they experienced in teaching during the 2020 fall semester. The webinar series continued in 2021. In March 2021, the PECOP webinar focused on “Engaging, Supporting and Assessing Students in a Pandemic-challenged World.” The July 2021 webinar was a joint effort of the APS Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee and the APS Teaching of Physiology Section. It focused on the challenges faced by physiology educators worldwide during the COVID-19 pandemic as a result of inequitable access to technology and discussed alternative approaches to deal with this issue. The September 2021 webinar looked at the effects of self-regulated learning processes on exam grades for students in college courses. In a town hall-style webinar in November 2021, participants shared lessons learned from remote teaching and discussed what the upcoming learning environment could look like for online or in-person teaching.

The PECOP webinars are an outgrowth of Virtual ITL Week and have continued with the support of APS staff. We hope to continue this platform for sharing ideas and networking with colleagues between ITLs. These monthly gatherings promote interactions among physiology educators beyond ITL registrants and will help PECOP continue to grow. Life science educators can make connections with other members of the community who are teaching similar types of classes, facing the many challenges of online instruction and/or face-to-face instruction with social distancing, developing inclusive teaching strategies, and performing education research. These collaborations among PECOP members will promote dissemination of effective teaching strategies and may lead to publications in Advances in Physiology Education, the Life Science Teaching Resource Community (LifeSciTRC), and the PECOP blog. If you would like to receive notification of future PECOP webinars, register at the LifeSciTRC (13) and, on your profile, check that you want to be a member of PECOP.

Future ITL Meetings

Virtual ITL Week demonstrated that online webinars have tremendous potential to increase outreach and diversify participants while retaining the important postmeeting impacts typical of the traditional ITL format (2). The ITL planning committee envisions the next ITL as an in-person meeting with some virtual aspects. We welcome suggestions for workshop topics and recommendations for speakers from the broader physiology education community. If you have an idea for a workshop topic or can recommend a speaker or presenter for a future ITL, please contact the ITL organizers: Beth Beason-Abmayr (bbeason@rice.edu), Ryan Downey (Ryan.Downey@georgetown.edu), or Barb Goodman (barb.goodman@usd.edu). If you have something to share about teaching physiology, please submit an abstract for a poster session at the 2022 ITL. To receive notifications and information about upcoming ITL meetings, sign up to be a member of PECOP (above) and/or become an APS member and join the Teaching of Physiology Section Hub to subscribe to e-mails.

TEBioED Program

Modeled after the 2020 Fellows program, APS is now offering a new TEBioED Professional Skills Training Course targeted at graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and early-career professionals who are interested in improving their teaching skills. Participants will be paired with experienced mentors for individualized advice as they work through the program activities to develop physiology education curricula that incorporate innovative teaching methods with clear learning objectives and aligned assessment to create an inclusive learning environment. The TEBioED course is an excellent way for trainees to further their understanding of how to use various types of pedagogy to enhance student learning, while also allowing them to network with their peers and established physiology educators. The course also provides more experienced educators who serve as mentors the same networking opportunity as well as a chance to energize their own teaching. For more information, see Ref. 6.

ENGAGE WITH PECOP

PECOP members are dedicated to the teaching and learning of physiology. There are many benefits to being a member and numerous ways to become involved.

Become a PECOP Member

There is no application process or membership fee to participate in PECOP. Simply register with your e-mail at the LifeSciTRC (13) and select “PECOP Member” in your user profile. Be sure to introduce yourself on the discussion board! Becoming a member of the American Physiological Society (APS) will give you access to additional teaching and learning resources. Join the Teaching of Physiology Section and sign up for e-mails in My APS Hubs.

Participate in the ITL Meetings and Webinars

As noted above, PECOP members’ suggestions for speakers, topics, and workshops are always welcome, as are abstracts for ITL poster sessions. The 2022 ITL planning is well underway, and all PECOP members are encouraged to attend either in person or virtually. Be sure to sign up as a PECOP member so you receive notifications about future ITLs and PECOP Webinars.

Contribute SoTL and DBER ideas

PECOP members can contribute ideas and share resources for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) and Discipline-Based Education Research (DBER) in physiology. Scholarly work focused on life science education can be submitted to

Advances in Physiology Education (14)

LifeSciTRC (13)

PECOP members are encouraged to publish their teaching ideas and education research in Advances in Physiology Education or online at the LifeSciTRC. Advances has a broad range of article types that focus on various aspects of scholarship, such as hypothesis- and data-driven education research, teaching innovations, curriculum development and assessment, training and mentoring, historical perspectives, staying current, and laboratory education. The LifeSciTRC is a digital repository of educational materials and resources in the life sciences for all levels of instruction. Submissions to Advances and the LifeSciTRC are peer reviewed. In addition to submitting ideas and resources, you can contribute to PECOP by serving as a reviewer for Advances and the LifeSciTRC.

Share Your Teaching Ideas

The LifeSciTRC hosts a twice-monthly PECOP Blog (see Ref. 5 for additional information online) on various educational topics from a diverse group of physiology educators. If you have an experience you want to share or a perspective on a topic related to physiology education, sign up to write a blog post. This is an excellent way to work toward more scholarly publications, and adequate lead time is provided to write the blog entry. If you are interested in learning more about writing a blog entry, please email Barb Goodman (barb.goodman@usd.edu).

THE FUTURE OF PECOP

The APS recently approved a strategic plan that calls for a creation of a new Center for Physiology Education that will be a dynamic home for undergraduate and postgraduate physiology educators. Stay tuned for more information about new initiatives for educators!

GRANTS

B. E. Goodman and B. Beason-Abmayr are organizers of the ITL, and B. E. Goodman organizes the PECOP blog. B. E. Goodman was a member of the task force to draft a plan for the Center for Physiology Education. B. Beason-Abmayr was a PI on the conference grant (1R13GM139236-01B) from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) of the National Institutes of Health to support the TEBioED Fellows Program and Virtual ITL Week in 2020. B. E. Goodman was partially supported by an Institutional Development Award (IDeA) from the NIGMS (Grant P20-GM-103443). M. L. Matyas is a retired APS staff member. M. L. Matyas and B. E. Goodman served as Co-PIs on the NSF Research Collaboration Grant that provided support for the establishment of PECOP (DBI-1346220).

DISCLAIMERS

The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

DISCLOSURES

B.B.-A. and M.L.M. are associate editors for Advances in Physiology Education, and B.E.G. is the editor-in-chief of Advances in Physiology Education.

AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS

B.B.-A. drafted manuscript; B.B.-A., M.L.M., and B.E.G. edited and revised manuscript; B.B.-A., M.L.M., and B.E.G. approved final version of manuscript.