November 15, 2015 (Vol. 35, No. 20)
URL:
http://www.coursesource.org
Rating:
Strong Points: Great peer-reviewed teaching resources
Weak Points: None
Summary:
As renewed emphasis has been placed on improving undergraduate STEM education in the U.S., the field of discipline-based education research (that is, researching how to best teach a particular subject, like biochemistry) has burgeoned. For educators wishing to incorporate such evidence-based teaching techniques into the classroom—or for those looking to publish their own education resources—CourseSource is an excellent online resource. An open-access journal of peer-reviewed teaching resources for undergraduate science classrooms, CourseSource provides free resources in a number of course areas including molecular biology, science process skills, and anatomy/physiology. Overall, 15 courses are represented on the website. Site visitors can browse content by resource or by course, or can search by specific parameters. Each resource is accompanied by lesson learning goals and learning objectives, a description of specific pedagogy methods used (such as active learning), information about assessment, and other relevant information.
