With the transition to online teaching in many universities, using digital insect images to facilitate student learning has been essential, especially when students are wholly or partly online. However, levels of prior student understanding combined with the intended learning objectives for an assignment may play a role in the effectiveness and the way in which digital insect images can be used. In this talk I will highlight various digital visual resources used in both lower and upper level undergraduate courses designed for insect novice audiences and discuss their effectiveness in improving student comprehension of both insect biology and identification. I will then illustrate that dependent upon the desired mastery level of student learning outcomes, digital tools may fall short of the intended goal, and options for filling those gaps need to be explored to supplement online learning.
