EcoEd Digital Library: Advancing Undergraduate Ecology Education
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EcoEd Digital Library (www.ecoed.net) is ESA's online catalog of resources for teaching undergraduate ecology. EcoEd DL provides instructors with teaching resources that are peer-reviewed for quality, scientific accuracy, and pedagogical use. Peer review began in 2007 and the library currently accepts photographs, figures, tables, classroom activities, and videos for review. The user community spans a wide range of teaching environments with approximately 40% of its users being from universities, 13% from 4-year colleges, 3% from 2-year colleges, 3% from community colleges, 14% from high schools, and 2% from middle schools. The year between February 2008 and 2009 saw 30% growth, with the number resources increasing from 250 to 329 individual items and the user community expanding from 2300 to over 3000 registered users. The long term goal for the library is to facilitate an active community of users and contributors and showcase a variety of high-quality resources that incorporate cutting edge science. Toward this end, researchers are encouraged to adapt and submit research products in order to meet Broader Impacts requirements for NSF sponsored research. As part of the BioScience Education Network (BEN), sponsored by AAAS, EcoEd DL gives its authors an opportunity to reach beyond just ecology and exchange teaching resources with the broader life sciences education community.