Dear
Colleague Letter: Requesting proposals for online biology education to the
Research Coordination Networks for Undergraduate Biology Education; January 15,
2021
Agency
National
Science Foundation
Description
With
this Dear Colleague Letter (DCL), the Directorates for Biological Sciences and
Education and Human Resources encourage the submissions of proposals to
the Research
Coordination
Networks for Undergraduate Biology Education (RCN-UBE)
Program that focus on developing, piloting, and
sharing innovative and transformative approaches for online undergraduate
biology courses, particularly those that foster inclusive approaches that
encourage student engagement and retention in biology. The RCN-UBE program is
well positioned to support these types of proposals since its goal is to improve
undergraduate biology in different areas by leveraging the power of a
collaborative network that supports groups of investigators to communicate and
coordinate their research, training, and educational activities across
disciplinary, organizational, geographic, and international
boundaries.
The
COVID-19 global pandemic has resulted in most undergraduate students receiving
some form of full or hybrid digital, online courses. Given the short time to
prepare for this transition, colleges did not have the opportunity to design
holistic experiential and research-based online learning environments. Thus,
there is a critical need to develop and test innovative strategies and share
best practices that can transform the online learning environment using engaged
learning pedagogies that effectively provide high-quality experiences for
biology students. Such approaches are expected to be strongly student-centered
and consider diversity, equity, and inclusion in all design aspects. These
efforts will likely outlive this pandemic and have the potential to transform
higher learning in biology to offer more options to diverse students in many new
and emerging settings.
Announcement
Number:
NSF
21-026
Virtual
Office Hours:
December
11, 2020,
December
18, 2020
January
8, 2021
January
14, 2021
January
15, 2021
Link
to Full Announcement
https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2021/nsf21026/nsf21026.jsp?WT.mc_id=USNSF_25&WT.mc_ev=click
Contact
Information
Sophie
George