Introduction

Teaching in cell biology and the heavily overlapping discipline of immunology requires presentation of many complex, multistep processes. More important than the number of steps, however, is the crucial nature of motion in these processes. Cells move from one place to another, subcellular structures move about within the cell, and individual molecules are formed, change shape, move to various locations. Understanding these motions and the relationships between the various structures and molecules is a central organizing theme of all cellular biology. Whereas teaching a sequence of steps is very straightforward, presenting the motion involved with a piece of chalk on a blackboard is very difficult.

Some of this difficulty can be overcome by the use of appropriate videos, computerized animations and tutorials. Indeed, there are a number of commercial packages available, which illustrate certain of these processes. In my experience, however, these commercial packages either require that you adopt a certain textbook or pay an exorbitant licensing fee. Furthermore, the quality of many of these packages is less than desirable because they focus on aspects that are not germane to our courses or are so simplistic as to be essentially useless. I am proposing to alleviate this situation by the preparation of tutorials and study guides that will have the appropriate content for our courses (which should correspond well to the needs of comparable courses at other ACS institutions) and be freely available to all students and for classroom presentations over the Web. These tutorials should be very helpful in several biology classes, will be accessible to students at other institutions (particularly ACS institutions by way of links from appropriate ACS pages) and will provide examples to Hendrix colleagues of the types of things that can be done with network resources for their classes. I will use the $2500 as a stipend, which will free me from having to find another source of income for 8 to 10 weeks next summer that I can dedicate full time to tutorial development.

Proposal

I have identified several key areas of cell biology and immunology where students historically have conceptual problems, which could be effectively addressed using the power of computer-based presentations. To address these problem areas, I propose to develop the following teaching aids directed at our introductory level Cell Biology course, but which should be useful for a wide variety of biology courses.

1. Sets of review questions on each major topic in cell biology. These question sets will be designed primarily as an aid for test preparation. The questions will be placed on Web pages and key questions will be linked to appropriate Web resources for looking up additional information. I have started initial preparation of these pages and have posted what is available so far at: http://www.hendrix.edu/homes/fac/sutherlandM/Cellreview.html.

2. A tutorial showing the organization of the cell and the relationship of subcellular organelles to each other and to general cell function. This section will include scanned photomicrographs and sketches, which illustrate intracellular organization and will be developed in Authorware to provide maximum navigational flexibility for students using the package. This tutorial will include a self-assessment test requiring students to "point and click" on appropriate structures in response to questions.

3. A tutorial showing the "flow of information" in the cell from DNA to RNA to protein. Designed either in Authoware or Macromind Director, this tutorial will illustrate regulated movement of material through nuclear pores, the roles of DNA and RNA polymerase in replication and transcription, and the operation of ribosomes in protein synthesis. A linked tutorial will be used to illustrate the role of the endoplasmic reticulum, transport vesicles and the golgi apparatus in maturing and moving proteins from synthesis to their final destinations.

4. A tutorial on cell and nuclear division developed in Director. Tracking the chromosomes as they separate in mitosis and meiosis is challenging for many novice biology students, but seeing animations of the process should provide an excellent learning aid.

I propose to develop the following Web-based teaching aids to aid in understanding immunology.

1. An Authoware tutorial illustrating the inflammatory response, a crucial immunological process that is given scant mention in many immunology texts. This tutorial was originally developed last summer at the ACS Multimedia Authoring Workshop at Southwestern University but needs some modification and additions prior to going on line.

2. An Authorware or Director tutorial on intracellular signaling. This is one of the most difficult of all areas for students in any cell or molecular biology courses. The pathways involved in intracellular signaling are quite complex and still under intense research. It is also a crucial area of research as these pathways are central in the development (and potentially the treatment) of diseases as diverse as cancer, arthritis and althzheimers.

Following development of these tutorials, I will put all materials on line to be accessed through my home page, the Hendrix Biology Department home page or through appropriate links on the ACS site. My goal will be to have all materials ready to be placed on the Hendrix Web server by the start of the fall term (late September) of 1998.

Equipment and Resources

Hendrix College has made major investments in recent years to optimize preparation and presentation of computer based learning materials. We have a campus wide network with computer outlets in all classrooms, faculty offices and students dorm rooms. Furthermore, many classrooms are now equipped with high quality video projection systems allowing large screen presentations of the materials in the classroom. A digital camera and video capture system are available through Information Technology. The Biology Department has added to this mix by the purchase in the last year of a video projection system for our main classroom, a scanner (Hewlett Packard ScanJet 5p), a Macintosh 6500/250 computer with AV capabilities, and software licenses for Photoshop LE, Authorware Academic 3.5 and Director Academic 5. I have personally become much more prepared for making my own presentations by participating in the Beginning through Advanced World Wide Web Workshops and the Multimedia Authoring Workshops sponsored by the ACS. These workshops have provided both basic skills and personal contacts to whom I can turn for advice.

Assessment

The assessment tools described below will be used to judge the success of these tutorials.

1. Improved classroom and test performance. Each tutorial is designed to enhance student understanding of difficult topics. I will ask that each faculty member teaching Cell Biology (3 or 4 different faculty each year) to comment on whether they found the tutorials useful in presenting the material, whether there was a discernible improvement in student performance (e.g., in the quality of questions asked about the material) in the classroom following use of the tutorials, and if use of the tutorials seemed to lead to an appreciable improvement in test performance on the covered subjects.

2. I will include questions on course evaluations given to students at the end of the year which ask how much they used the tutorials outside the classroom and whether or not they found them helpful. In Cell Biology, we ask students to use the Study Guide which accompanies the text so I will ask students to compare the value of both sets of information.

3. I will include my e-mail address with each tutorial and ask users to tell me what features they find useful and what other features should be improved or added to make the tutorial work better. This feature will be especially useful for ACS faculty at other institutions to comment on whether the materials were useful for their courses.