Boris Jovanovic
- Adjunct Assistant Professor
- Ecology, Evolution & Organismal Biology
Contact
Contact Info
Course
A ECL 444/544X: Aquatic Toxicology
Resource
- Textbook: Perspectives of Aquatic Toxicology
Case Study
The Aquatic Toxicology course provides an overview of the interaction between anthropogenic chemicals and aquatic ecosystems. One of the objectives of the course is the creation of the Wikibook - Perspectives of Aquatic Toxicology – which is primarily written by graduate students.
During the many years of previous studies in my youth, I often felt constrained by the boundaries of textbooks that the teachers were imposing on me. I felt there was no room to expand the knowledge beyond the colorful hardcovers of a textbook and its content. There was no reason for me to be creative, to want more, to ask questions, to seek answers, as it was already predetermined that all I, and thousands of other bright minds, needed to know was already in the textbook. There was not even a need for the teacher. All that was required was the textbook. My homework would be discarded and stowed away in some box, never again to see the sunlight, no matter how creative I tried to be. But, I wanted more...
I created the Aquatic Toxicology course to follow the open pedagogy approach “in which students are active and visible participants in the construction of knowledge” (DeRosa & Robison, 2017, p. 115). This time the students create their own textbook, selecting, and writing their own chapters while transferring the knowledge to each other in the class. There are no hardcovers or boundaries. The book is free and accessible to any student in the world. This collaborative work between the course instructor/editor and the students aimed to present perspectives in Aquatic Toxicology and to establish authors a theoretical foundation for the experience.