Scholarship in Times of Crisis  

 
Over the past eight months, many of us have had to change how we teach and innovate how we 

deliver the content in our courses to our students. We have created virtual lab experiences. We 

have created virtual learning modules. We have recorded or delivered our lectures synchronously 

using virtual conferencing platforms. We have implemented virtual labs delivered by commercial 

education service entities. We have navigated remote assessment and testing. We have mentored 

student bioinformatics, data analysis, survey and statistical research that utilized previously 

collected data when we couldn’t use our labs.  

 

This issue highlights your creative innovations for instruction of large lectures online, newly 

developed virtual labs and teaching tools for instruction of instrumental analysis and crime scene, 

tools for accessing DNA data in cloud servers and virtual analysis, and assessments of student 

learning in virtual education in a special section, “Scholarship in Times of Crisis.”  

 

Also in this issue you will find papers reporting upon course-based undergraduate research 

experiences, or CUREs, which have been found to be effective in engaging more undergraduate 

students - and a more diverse population of undergraduates - in research. Central to the Journal’s 

mission of being a resource for all forensic educators, there are papers focused on education in the 

fields of large enrollment introductory forensic courses, crime scene investigation, forensic 

biology and instrumental analysis. Keep reading and contact us with your feedback, submissions 

and ideas.  
 

 

Best Regards,  

Adrienne Brundage, Ph.D, D-ABFE 

Kelly M. Elkins, Ph.D 

Lawrence Quarino, Ph.D., D-ABC 

Tri-Editors-In-Chief 

Journal of Forensic Science Education