A remote undergraduate biology seminar on SARS‐CoV‐2 literature

At our small liberal arts college, we require undergraduates majoring in Biology and Biomedical Sciences to take a seminar in the spring of their senior year. Each year, the seminar focuses on a different topic in molecular biology and/or biochemistry. The course operates as a “journal club”—every week, a student presents a peer‐reviewed research article, and the instructor moderates a discussion. When the transition to remote learning occurred due to the COVID‐19 pandemic in March 2020, the seminar meetings were moved online to a Zoom‐based platform, and the course topic was changed to focus on emerging research regarding the novel coronavirus. The continuation of the Biology senior seminar in a remote context was straightforward, and the SARS‐CoV‐2 virus furnished a rich theme for exploration of diverse topics in molecular biology and genetics.