Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) provide students with ample opportunity to engage in the scientific process and are increasingly replacing more traditional cookbook-style laboratory exercises in the undergraduate biology curriculum. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the difficulty of implementing these projects during times of crisis. The quick transition to online learning during the pandemic afforded us a unique opportunity to develop an alternative version of our CURE for the online environment and to compare the efficacy of our CURE on learning gains in online versus in-person learning situations. Compared with a previous semester, our data suggest no significant differences in learning gains between students who participated in a hands-on CURE and an online CURE. Taken together the data suggests an avenue for CURE implementation even while teaching in online or hybrid formats. We discuss strategies that made the CURE successful in the online format and offer suggestions for how to adapt such activities for online or hybrid courses.
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