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The goal of the National Academies Summer Institute is to change teaching practices in introductory, undergraduate biology courses.

To make time in class for group activities devoted to critical thinking, we integrated a series of short online lectures into the homework assignments of a large, introductory biology course at a research university. The majority of students viewed the online lectures before coming to class and reported that the online lectures helped them to complete the in-class activity and did not increase the amount of time they devoted to the course. In addition, students who viewed the online lecture performed better on clicker questions designed to test lower-order cognitive skills. The in-class activities then gave the students practice analyzing the information in groups and provided the instructor with feedback about the students' understanding of the material. On the basis of the results of this study, we support creating hybrid course models that allow students to learn the fundamental information outside of class time, thereby creating time during the class period to be dedicated toward the conceptual understanding of the material.T HE lecture hall is no longer the primary portal for the dissemination of information. Instead, the college classroom must embrace a new role as a place where students can work with instructors and peers to apply and evaluate the wealth of information that is available (Handelsman et al. 2004(Handelsman et al. , 2007Ebert-May and Hodder 2008). Students actively engaged in constructing their own learning demonstrate increased learning gains and enhanced retention of course material when compared to students who listen to traditional lectures (Udovic et al. 2002;Knight and Wood 2005;Deslauriers et al. 2011). Engagement in active-learning exercises like small group learning requires students to communicate their thought processes. Instructors can then gauge whether the course learning objectives are being achieved and can identify and address student misconceptions (Klymkowsky et al. 2003;Allen and Tanner 2005;Phillips et al. 2008). Implementation of active learning in the science classroom recognizes the value of diversity and increases student retention (Felder 1993;Buncick et al. 2001). Given these benefits, national agencies have promoted the inclusion of active learning in undergraduate science education (National Research Council 2000 Aaas 2011), which raises questions about how to implement active learning while maintaining sufficient coverage of the fundamental information.Instructors have been experimenting with new delivery methods, moving away from the traditional in-class lecture and out-of-class problem set model. For example, many instructors are now incorporating online learning components, which have been shown to improve both student attitudes and academic performance (Grabe and Christopherson 2008;McFarlin 2008;Vatovec and Balser 2009). Other models, like team-based learning, flip the standard paradigm and instead require students to read information outside of class to prepare for in-class activities (Foertsch et al. 2002). On the basis of these ideas in an atte...