Case studies in physiology teaching using ZOOM and D2L easier and more effective than IN CLASS

Case studies have been shown to be a highly effective way for students to APPLY what they learn within an ACTIVE LEARNING and TEAM building environment. The Purpose: of this presented work is to demonstrate practical and effective means to: (a) incorporate case studies into a physiology course; (b) take full advantage of ZOOM technology for small group (<5 students) and larger (<32 student) team interactions; (c) take advantage of BRIGHTSPACE (or other Learning Management System; LMS) for Pre- and post-quizzing; (d) disseminate “Rules of Engagement” for teachers so they can optimize a-c while interacting with students in these case studies; (e) provide to all interested teachers of biology and physiology over twenty case studies that have been constructed, used, modified, used again, now ready for adapting, in part of in whole, in other courses of less than 100 students. Examples: of the over 20 case studies the author has constructed, complete with PRE-session and POST-session quizzes, include: Physiology of a neurogenerative disease, Sports injury, Coronavirus and cardiovascular disease, Stress and the endocrine system, Thyroid troubles, The breathless heart, Primary hypokalemic periodic paralysis, ECG irregularities, Asthma attack, Human metabolic and GI physiology, Endocrine pathology of the adrenal gland, Lost in a desert (integrative physiology), Pharmacology of the Action Potential, Tired swimmer and the neuromuscular junction, Cardiac regulation, Diabetes insipidus Primary amenorrhea, and Evolution and the Giant Panda. Note that these listed spans the entire topic coverage of a standard systems-based animal or medical physiology course. For every case study there is, available on Brightspace (D2L), the associated (1) case study of 2-4 pages, (2) a four-question PRE-session quiz, and (3) a 12-20 question POST-session quiz (submitted individually). The development and incorporation of these case studies in physiology began in 2017 (pre-COVID19 pandemic) and continues to this day. ZOOM and Brightspace were first used in 2019 when classes were moved entirely online. Then it was discovered how better ZOOM was for the case study sessions, and how Brightspace could be best used for the PRE-session and POST-session quizzes. All case studies have been used with our 3 rd and 4 th year physiology classes at least twice. Currently eight case studies are used in the fall semester course averaging once every other week. The author constructed 24 case studies (3 years without repeating). The presentation will cover “Rules of Engagement” that have been shown to be effective before, during, and after the ZOOM sessions. The sessions involve ~20 mins of ZOOM breakout small room (<5 students) discussions, followed by entire TEAM (<32 students) discussions. Three ZOOM sessions per week allows for up to 96 students. The author is motivated in assisting biology or physiology teachers interested in incorporating these or other case studies into their courses. Private funding. This abstract was presented at the American Physiology Summit 2025 and is only available in HTML format. There is no downloadable file or PDF version. The Physiology editorial board was not involved in the peer review process.