The QUBES project, the BioQUEST Curriculum Consortium, and CourseSource are thrilled to announce a new partnership that will bring CourseSource’s web presence and resources onto the QUBES platform. This move, which will take place this summer, was supported with pilot funding from the Hewlett Foundation through the SCORE Network. Moving CourseSource onto the QUBES platform reinforces the journal’s commitments to Open Educational Resources (OER), evidence-based teaching practices, and serving the community of biology education faculty. The new platform will also introduce an improved user experience, resource-based community discussions, and the option to create and share adaptations of openly licensed CourseSource resources. 

Another exciting development is CourseSource’s newly funded National Science Foundation IUSE (Improving Undergraduate STEM Education) project, “Collaborative Research: Online4Bio: Building adaptability for teaching online through peer-reviewed, active-learning resources and professional development.” This grant will allow CourseSource to develop and study lessons designed for online learning. The NSF support will also strengthen collaborations with BioQUEST (which manages the QUBES platform) through new professional development opportunities (Faculty Mentoring Networks), and the formation of community working groups that focus on important aspects of teaching and learning such as universal design for learning, instructional design, and inclusive pedagogy.

“We are so excited to be welcoming CourseSource onto the QUBES platform and to expand the collaboration between BioQUEST and CourseSource. We value CourseSource’s fantastic team and community, and its commitment to sharing and disseminating teaching resources of the highest quality,” said Sarah Prescott, Executive Director of BioQUEST. “We hope BioQUEST, through the QUBES platform, can provide more avenues for faculty engagement and an expanded capacity for the community to connect and collaborate.” 

The move to the QUBES platform will take place in July, although both CourseSource sites will remain operational through the summer to ensure a complete transition of materials. (Stay tuned for more information about these changes and how to stay connected with CourseSource.)

This move is just one of a few big changes for CourseSource. CourseSource will expand its resources to include Physics, made possible by a gift from Carl Wieman, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2001 and recent recipient of the Yidan Prize for Education Research. CourseSource will also have a new Editor-in-Chief this summer; Jenny Knight, Associate Professor in Molecular Cellular and Developmental Biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, will succeed Michelle Smith, who has accepted the position of Senior Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education for the College of Arts and Sciences at Cornell University. 

To connect with the BioQUEST and QUBES community, sign up for their newsletter or follow on Twitter @BioQUESTed / @qubeshub). 

To learn more about CourseSource, visit their current site or follow on Twitter @CourseSource.