From the Newsletter: Developing the FUN Exchange

• By: FUNblog
• On: 08/20/2021 15:23:32
• In: FUN Newsletter

Knowledge sharing to enrich neuroscience teaching: Developing the FUN Exchange
By Claudia Jorgensen and Michael Wright

Following the FUN 2020 Virtual Workshop, a group of approximately 80 attendees came together to discuss the possibility of developing a crowd-sourced collection of resources for teaching in neuroscience and biopsychology. The goal of this collection was to address the need for high quality labs and activities for online course delivery (during the coronavirus epidemic) as well as allow to address limitations of currently available collections. Specifically, collections in place currently are limited in accessibility, searchability, upkeep, and/or ability of authorship attribution.

In August, a group of four FUN members (Suzanne Mallery, Carlos Aizenman, Michael Wright, and Claudia Jorgensen) decided on how this new collection--called  “FUN Exchange” (for exchange of ideas and resources)--would address these limitations. Once we established that a platform called Airtable (allowing cloud collaboration via a spreadsheet-database hybrid setup) would be used, Michael Wright and Claudia Jorgensen started working on making this shared vision a reality. The FUN Exchange is accessible to anybody who has created a free account with Airtable. The FUN Exchange is fully searchable—allowing searches based on key words, subject area, student level, type of resource, contributor, etc.—features that are not present in many online collections. Within the over 400 resources that have been added so far, key words range from aphasia and action potential to neuroanatomy to visual illusions and yawning. The type of resources include: beyond exams (assessments that are not exams), case studies, class activities, lab equipment and supplies, lab exercises, media, open educational resources, podcasts, simulation activities, software, videos, and web-based tools. Within these, there are resources suitable for intro level courses as well as more specialized courses such as psychopharmacology or behavioral neuroscience.

In addition to the ability to search and vet these resources, the FUN Exchange is designed to be community-driven, meaning the community provides resources and vision for the exchange. For example, at the recent inaugural Neuroscience Teaching Conference (organized by Melissa Maffeo and Christina Ragan), interest has been voiced to continue to expand the resource to maybe include study abroad resources and field trips.

Please do not hesitate in reaching out to Michael Wright (m.wright@csus.edu) and Claudia Jorgensen (cjorgensen@uvu.edu) to learn more or sign up to join our vision to create a community-driven resource where we all can share and learn from one another to not only make each of our courses exceptional BUT most importantly increase the quality of neuroscience for all students.