Development of an Online General Biology Open Educational Resource (OER) Laboratory Manual

ABSTRACT Currently, many academic institutions are using one or more variations of online modalities due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and science educators face a unique challenge with distance-learning laboratories. Many resources to engage students in virtual, interactive laboratory activities exist, but we found that high costs and/or overlooked content left gaps for several topics typically taught in a general, introductory biology course for undergraduate biology majors (e.g., organismal biology). Additionally, resources for an online lab must be identified and curated from multiple sources, requiring intense demands on the instructors’ time. To meet this need and to overcome the financial burden of high-cost lab manuals or software, we developed, piloted, and revised a series of online general biology lab exercises. We have published these exercises as an Open Educational Resource (OER) digital laboratory manual under the Creative Commons License Agreement, and they are accessible online via Manifold, Creative Commons, and the CUNY Academic Works portal.


INTRODUCTION
The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting switch to remote learning have complicated two major challenges faced by many undergraduate students and their instructors: (i) the high cost of traditional lab manuals and (ii) the availability of online laboratory exercises. As the spring 2020 semester transitioned from fully in-person to fully online courses, we began searching for open educational laboratory exercises. We searched for highquality, interactive activities that aligned with the learning outcomes for our general biology courses for biology majors (see the learning outcomes for General Biology I [https://www. kbcc.cuny.edu/academicdepartments/bio/biosyllabus/Bio-13-Syllabus-2021.pdf] and General Biology II [https://www. kbcc.cuny.edu/academicdepartments/bio/documents/Bio_14_ syllabus-2021.pdf]) and that could be completed by students working asynchronously.
General biology typically includes the scientific method, microscopy, biochemistry, cell structure and function, enzymes, photosynthesis, cellular respiration, and genetics, and there are some high-quality, virtual Open Educational Resource (OER) labs available for these topics (for example see the Table of Contents for virtual labs in general biology courses at the New York City College of Technology [https://openlab.citytech.cuny. edu/bio-oer/]). However, we found little in the way of fully developed, virtual OER labs for additional topics that often occur in general biology, such as evolution, ecology, and organismal biology, which could be completed independently by students without synchronous instructor guidance. There are excellent interactives available for specific topics in evolution and ecology ( . In light of this, we embarked on the development of a comprehensive, fully online, and openly licensed laboratory manual for a second-semester general biology course (see Table 1). This should provide faculty and students with a general biology course that covers evolution, ecology, and organismal biology as a one-stop source for interactive, virtual "lab" activities that can be completed independently and asynchronously by first-year undergraduate students (or advanced high school students).
It was important to us that this lab manual be provided as an open educational resource. The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report states that since 2002, college textbook prices have increased by 82% (1, 2). In the 2018 New York State Open Educational Resources (OER) City University of New York (CUNY) report (3), a Kingsborough Community College student was quoted as saying, "I can work as many jobs as I can but [the high cost of textbooks] is still going to affect me. If I'm able to pay the tuition, I won't pay for the textbooks. If I pay for the textbooks, I won't have enough money for tuition." Access to textbooks  Explain how the following evidence is used for phylogenetic reconstruction: the fossil record, DNA, and biogeography.
Describe specific examples of phylogenetic reconstruction, such as the relationship of humans to other primates.
Build and analyze a phylogenetic tree, identifying patterns of shared ancestry.
Differentiate between the allopatric and sympatric modes of speciation.
Identify and describe at least three vital roles that bacteria play in their ecosystems, such as primary production, decomposition, nitrogen fixation, and disease.

Protista
Define the term "protist" and explain why this is not a monophyletic group.
Identify representatives from each supergroup Excavata, "SAR" clade, Archaeplastida, and Unikonta Draw a phylogenetic tree for the eukaryotes and explain why the eukaryote supergroups form a polytomy.
Indicate the position of plants, animals, and fungi on the eukaryote tree, and identify the group of protists most closely related to each.
Give examples of protist species from each eukaryote supergroup.
Give two examples of the significant impact of specific protists on their ecosystems.

Fungi
Describe fungal classification into phyla, and provide a phylogeny of Kingdom Fungi.
In a sentence or two, describe the characteristics of the three largest phyla in the Kingdom Fungi (Zygomycota, Ascomycota, Basidiomycota).
Using images, explain the life cycle of typical multicellular fungi.
Give three examples of how humans benefit from specific uses of fungi impacts student engagement, performance, and retention at 2-year and 4-year institutions. Many students who cannot afford the lab manual and would previously use a classmate's manual to follow the laboratory exercises no longer have that option due to the pandemic. We decided to write an OER laboratory manual that could be used in asynchronous or synchronous courses (see Fig. 1 for examples of pages). We published the manual under the Creative Commons License Agreement Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License: (https://creativecommons.org/licenses), and it is accessible via CUNY Manifold (https://cuny.manifoldapp. org/projects/general-biology-oer-laboratory-manual), the CUNY

Lab topic Learning objectives
Identify reproductive structures in gymnosperms and angiosperms

Summarize differences between monocots and eudicots
Label the reproductive and non-reproductive structures of a flower

Animals I: Invertebrates
Distinguish members of the Kingdom Animalia from their closest living relative (Choanoflagellates and Fungi).
Explain the basic body plan of members in the Kingdom Animalia.
Compare two types of invertebrate life cycles.
Compare the structure and function of invertebrates. Explain the relationships between climate (temp and precipitation) and terrestrial biome type.
Apply the concepts of biotic potential and environmental resistance to human population growth.
Explain the difference between exponential and logistic growth and define carrying capacity.
Identify major events that have affected human population growth, and explain how they have increased carrying capacity.
Explain the dynamics in population size in a real-life predator-prey relationship.
Explain the difference between density-dependent and density-independent factors that affect population growth.
Interpret real-life predator-prey population data as depicted in a graph.

Ecology II: Community and Ecosystem Dynamics
Explore the concept of an ecological niche and the difference between a fundamental niche and a realized niche using an example of two barnacle species competing for the same resource.
Using the same two competing barnacle species, demonstrate how limiting factors (predation and desiccation tolerance) interact to result in competitive exclusion, resource partitioning and realized niches. student anxiety in an asynchronous course. In a synchronous course, instructors may devote 15 minutes each week to review the instructions for each laboratory exercise. 2. Hands-on activities and exploratory observations. In addition to supplementary videos, instructors may ask students to safely engage in related hands-on, at-home activities, including dissections. For example, during meal preparation, students can cut fungi, fruits, vegetables, shellfish, fish, or poultry to identify structures and correlate them to their functions. Those mentioned above can relate to the following lab activities: lab activities 6 (Fungi); 8 (Plant II: Seed Plants); 9 (Animals I: Invertebrates), and 10 (Animals II: Vertebrates).
In conclusion, with the ongoing pandemic, we are pleased to share this lab manual in the hope that it will provide an inexpensive, convenient, and effective alternative to in-person labs. Additionally, our online OER laboratory manual has opened FIG 1. (Continued) the opportunity for a second-semester general biology laboratory course to be offered online post-pandemic.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL
Supplemental material is available online only.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This project was in part funded by CUNY using New York State OER funds awarded to D.Y.B., A.N.F., K.P., and F.T.