Comparison of hybrid learning and remote education in the implementation of the “Adopt a Microorganism” methodology

Abstract

The internet has changed the way teachers and students access information and build knowledge. The COVID-19 pandemic has recently created challenges for both teachers and students, demanding new methodologies for remote learning. In Life Sciences, mixing online content with practical activities represents an even greater challenge. In Microbiology, the implementation of an active teaching methodology, the #Adote project, based on the social network Facebook®, represents a great alternative to associate remote education with classroom activities. In 2020, the version applied in high school, \Adopt a Microorganism", was adapted to meet the demands of emergency remote education due to the suppression of face-to-face activities caused by the pandemic. In the present study, we assessed how the change in methodology impacted the learning of Microbiology and the richness of the discourse of high school integrated to technical education in Business Administration of the Federal Institute of São Paulo, Campus Sorocaba. For that, three questionnaires related to the adopted microorganism species were applied. The responses of students in the 2019 and 2020 classes were compared in terms of content richness and multiplicity of concepts through the application of the Shannon diversity index, an approach usually used to assess biodiversity in different environments. The observed results suggest that remote learning provided students with a conceptual basis and richness of content equivalent to those achieved by students submitted to the hybrid teaching model. In conclusion, this study demonstrated that the #Adote project methodology can be used in both hybrid and remote models, indicating that it is a viable alternative not only for teaching Microbiology, but possibly for other areas of knowledge.