Implementing online learning in a genetic course

Description:

Sometimes teaching quantitative genetics can be boring for some students, as we see mainly numbers and formulas. By doing an small video with a virtual visit to a farm, where we will get the data to estimate genetic parameters, we could help the student to be curious and more interested in the topic. Methane emissions and feed efficiency in dairy cattle are two of the topics I currently investigate, and I consider they are both crucial for livestock production. The idea is to take a video of the farm, explain a bit about how it work the measuring of the phenotypes, and the identification of the animal, and take 2 or more cows as individuals we are interested on. In the exercise the students will have time to get familiar with the database, and the final idea to calculate some genetic parameters and rank the cows (that were introduce to them) on which one is more efficient and/or produce less methane. With this information the students will get familiar on how selection is being done in real life, and they will get the tools needed to take decisions. For this exercise we follow the STREAM methodology where we will have the out of class activity (watching the video) and the in class activity to solve the exercises, then out-class activity (mentimeter) and in-class feed-back.