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This paper reports a redesigned BYU–Hawaii general education biology course taught in hybrid form to two student groups. Biology 100 tasks required students to first learn and then apply concepts, with technology supporting distance learners. Student feedback indicates greater responsibility, deeper engagement in biological discussions, and improved domain-specific critical thinking.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/a-task-centered-approach-to-freshman-level-general-biology/595421/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/a-task-centered-approach-to-freshman-level-general-biology/595421.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Blitz","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-06","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":29},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What instructional goal does the task-centered approach target in this biology course?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"It aims to improve application and transfer of knowledge while helping students take more responsibility for their own learning.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"How were tasks selected and structured for Biology 100?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"Tasks were chosen so students learned biology concepts and then applied them through authentic, real-world style activities.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What support was used to reach distance students?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"Technology was integrated into the course to help BYU–Hawaii reach target distance student areas.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},595421,1792211445,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":29,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":39,"language":139,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":143,"read_time":46,"preview_page_count":4},24464137899374,"https://us-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_3d24733baf745e90a7e4bdd5f77d97b2","A Task-Centered Approach to Freshman-Level General Biology  \nGreg Francom*, David Bybee, Mark Wolfersberger, Anne Mendenhall, M. David  \nMerrill  \nCenter for Improvement of Teaching and Outreach, Brigham Young University-Hawaii, BYUH \\#1963, 55-220 Kulanui Street,Laie, HI 96762  \nEmail:greg.francom@gmail.com  \n*Corresponding author (Current address 1081A Pebblestone Drive Watkinsville, GA, 30677 )  \nAbstract: Many new instructional theories advocate centering instruction around a set of authentic tasks to improve application and transfer of knowledge and help students take more responsibility for their own learning. At BYU-Hawaii, a general education biology course was redesigned to follow this task-centered approach and then taught to two groups of students. Tasks were chosen for this course that required students to first learn and then apply their knowledge of biology. Technology was also brought into the course to help BYU-Hawaii reach its target areas for distance students. Overall, students feel that this course helps them take more responsibility for their learning and is more meaningful than other general education courses to which they have been exposed. Responses to tasks suggest that students who apply themselves learn critical thinking skills within the domain of biology and discuss biological topics in depth.  \nKeywords: general biology, task-centered instruction, authentic tasks, distance education, student-centered learning, authentic assessment  \nIntroduction  \nBrigham Young University-Hawaii (BYUHawaii) has students from over 70 different countries attending classes. To prepare them better to attend BYUHawaii, efforts are being made to teach more students ata distance before they arrive on campus. The present thrust is to convert existing face-to-face, freshman-level general education courses to a distance education or hybrid format, to increase the effectiveness of instruction in these courses, and to help students take more responsibility for their own learning. Students will finish their first year of college in their own country before coming to Laie, Hawaii, where they will finish their degree on campus. The target areas for this approach currently include Mongolia, Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. This approach has many advantages for BYUHawaii, including decreasing the need for student housing in a small and very full community, preparing students for college life before they actually attend classes in person, and helping them learn effectively.  \nOne of the first classes to be converted to this format and taught as a hybrid course was Biology 100. Biology 100 is a general biology course that gives freshman-level students a survey of the field of biology. Traditionally this course covered topics that include the introduction to biology, cells, molecules, photosynthesis, cellular reproduction, genetics, DNA, ecosystems, evolution and much more. Courses such as this that cover a breadth of topics are among the most common types of general education courses in universities today. Many  \nuniversity courses center instruction on topics rather than tasks and cover a high number of topics without requiring students to apply the information they learn to new situations. The passive lecture approach, while common (Lammers, 2002; Ediger, 2001), requires less responsibility from students for their own learning than other more constructivist approaches to learning (Harland, 2003; Brauner, Carey, Henriksson, Sunnerhagen, & Ehrenborg, 2007) . Standard assessment methods such as multiple-choice tests that are commonly used in college classrooms, while sometimes able to determine depth of learning, are often used only as a way to encourage absorption and recall rather than application. Too often, students learn a little bit about each item and then remember that little bit for the test without applying it (Butler & Roediger, 2007; Reid, Duvall, & Evans, 2007) . Concepts in these types of general education classes are not ","cbCaifjEpqu9HScg","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaifjEpqu9HScg","pdf",1157986,"English","# Introduction\n## A Task-Centered Model","[{\"question\":\"What instructional goal does the task-centered approach target in this biology course?\",\"answer\":\"It aims to improve application and transfer of knowledge while helping students take more responsibility for their own learning.\"},{\"question\":\"How were tasks selected and structured for Biology 100?\",\"answer\":\"Tasks were chosen so students learned biology concepts and then applied them through authentic, real-world style activities.\"},{\"question\":\"What support was used to reach distance students?\",\"answer\":\"Technology was integrated into the course to help BYU–Hawaii reach target distance student areas.\"}]","A Task-Centered Approach to Freshman-Level General Biology | PDF",1792081108]