Developing WWW-based Molecular Biology Tutorials

Introduction

What tools do educators have to address this "visual" barrier? Until recently, we relied upon illustrations and diagrams from textbooks (and overhead or slide projections of these images); plastic chemical models; videos; and, for the uninhibited instructor, lots of creative body movements. These tools have served us well and have successfully breached the barrier for many, but not all, students. In particular, I think that well-produced videos that are scientifically accurate (many are not) are very effective tools for learning because they can present molecular processes as dynamic events-events that involve motion and structural changes. Unfortunately, videos are expensive and, given the rapid advances in cellular and molecular biology, outdated within a few years. In addition, a student can't take a video back to his/her room to review and study. Can a teacher find a tool that combines the strengths of a video with low-cost, edit, and ready-access features? I think that web-based, animated tutorials may be the tool.

There are several software programs available which allow a person to create a movie (animation) on any subject. Indeed, many textbook publishers now provide interactive tutorials with their texts or through their text web-sites. I have used several of these tutorials and quite a few of them are useful as teaching and learning aids. However, I often want to edit these tutorials in order to meet the particular needs of my courses and my students. Since I can't change these packaged tutorials, I have been exploring the use of Macromedia Flash in developing web-based Molecular Biology tutorials.

I have created several tutorials that I will be testing in several different classes this year. (These tutorials can be viewed at http://web.centre.edu/~bmb/movies/list_of_movies.htm. You will need a Flash plug-in to run the tutorials. If you do not have the Flash plug-in, you can download it for free from www.macromedia.com.) One of the tutorials, "Translation", was created for our Introductory Biology class (Bio 11), while the others were created for a sophomore-level Cell/Molecular Biology class ("Lac Operon" and "Telomeres"), and a senior-level class in Molecular Genetics ("DNA Replication"). All of these tutorials have been, or will be, posted on the appropriate course web page as a resource link. I will use these tutorials in class (with a computer-projection system) and the students will be able to access these tutorials from any computer on or off campus. My experience with these tutorials, thus far, has been very positive. Editing the tutorials is relatively easy; therefore updating the content will be just as easy. I anticipate that these tutorials, used in conjunction with other instructional resources, will be a valuable tool for instructors presenting molecular processes and for students learning about these processes.

Proposed Project

1. I would like to create a set of Flash-animated tutorials that encompass the major molecular biology processes covered in most undergraduate Introductory Biology courses. This set will include DNA replication, transcription, translation, and an example of gene regulation (the lac operon model). I will edit and improve my current "Translation" tutorial, which was created for Bio 11, based upon feedback from students in my class this year. This feedback will be in the form of an evaluation that the students will complete (see Appendix). Although I have already created a "DNA Replication" and "Lac Operon" tutorial, these are too detailed and complex for an introductory class; therefore, I will need to create new tutorials for these processes as well as for transcription. The student evaluations of "Translation" should prove useful in developing these new tutorials. This Molecular Biology set will be used in 2001-2002 in my Bio 11 class, and Centre colleagues who also teach this course have agreed to test this set in their classes. Student and faculty evaluations will allow me to assess the usefulness of these tutorials as teaching and learning tools.
2. I would like to enhance each tutorial with an on-line quiz that each student can complete and send to me (anonymously or not). I can create this quiz in the Flash environment so that the student can easily be referred back to the tutorial when they choose a wrong answer. This quiz will allow a student to assess his/her understanding of the material, and, with the results that are sent to me, I can determine the areas that students are having difficulty understanding. In addition, I can use the reported scores as a measure of how many students are using the tutorial outside of the classroom.
   Realistically, I think that it will take most, if not all, of the summer to complete #1 and #2. However, once I have accomplished them I intend to begin work on the following:
3. Once I have created the "basic" tutorials and quizzes for DNA replication, transcription, translation, and the lac operon, I would like to use them as the foundation for the creation of a set of tutorials for our sophomore-level Cell/Molecular Biology course (BMB 21). These tutorials will be more detailed than the introductory tutorials, as befits an intermediate-level course, and the on-line quizzes will reflect that as well. I have already created tutorials for the lac operon and telomere replication (used in a discussion of DNA replication) for this class and will have students evaluate these when the class is taught in Spring 2001. If sufficient progress is made on this intermediate set of tutorials, I will use the complete set of tutorials in 2001-2002 and assess their usefulness through student evaluations and faculty feedback.
4. Finally, I would like to create a set of the same tutorials for my senior-level course in Molecular Genetics (BMB 34) using the BMB 21 set as a foundation. I have already created a DNA replication tutorial for this class (and already have plans for improving and expanding it based upon my use of it this fall). These tutorials, as demonstrated by "DNA Replication", will be very detailed and will incorporate the latest research on these processes. (Eventually, I would like to create tutorials in DNA mutation and repair, DNA recombination, post-transcriptional and post-translational processing, and additional examples of gene regulation. These tutorials would only be used in this class.) I doubt that I can complete this advanced set by the end of Summer 2001, however I will work on this part of the project as time allows.

Institutional Support and Technical Requirements

Macromedia has recently come out with a Flash 5 version that I would like to purchase for the proposed work.

Assessment

Sharing results

• As mentioned above, I will make these tutorials and quizzes available to my colleagues at Centre for use in their Introductory Biology and Cell/Molecular Biology classes (I am the only one who teaches Molecular Genetics).
• If there is sufficient interest, I will conduct a workshop for the faculty in Biology and Biochemistry/Molecular Biology on creating animated tutorials using Flash. My colleague Stephanie Dew, who has created tutorials in biochemistry using Chime and Flash, is willing to co-teach this workshop.
• I will be presenting several of my current tutorials to the Science Education section of the Kentucky Academy of Science at its annual meeting in November, 2000.
• All tutorials will be posted on the "BMB movies" website (http://web.centre.edu/~bmb/ Movies/list_of_movies.htm).
• I will provide copies of my tutorials to colleagues at ACS institutions. This can be done in several ways: providing the URL for the web-published tutorials, providing the movie and/or web files, and/or providing the Flash files so that each can be edited by the recipient.
• If there is sufficient interest, Stephanie Dew and I will conduct an ACS Summer Technology workshop at Southwestern University in 2002 on using Flash to develop tutorials for the sciences. This workshop would also provide information on how to adapt/edit our tutorials for individual needs.

Appendix

Part I--In class use

a. Were you in class on the day(s) when the "Translation" tutorial was used? If no, skip to Part II

b. Was the tutorial a useful component of that day's class? Please explain why it was or wasn't.

c. Did the tutorial help you understand the process of Translation? Please explain your answer.

d. The tutorial was more, less, or just as (circle one) useful to you in understanding Translation as the diagrams in your textbook. Please explain your answer.

e. Would you like to see more tutorials used in class? If so, on what topics?

Part II-Out of class use

a. Did you use the Translation tutorial (accessed via the Bio 11 web page) outside of class? If you did not, please explain why you didn't.

b. Did you have any difficulties accessing the tutorial? If so, please explain these difficulties.

c. Did you have any trouble progressing through the tutorial? If so, at what points did you have trouble?

d. Did the tutorial help you understand the process of Translation? Please explain your answer.

e. The tutorial was more, less, or just as (circle one) useful to you in understanding Translation as the diagrams in your textbook. Please explain your answer.

f. Was it useful to you to have the tutorial available outside the classroom? Why or why not?

g. What are your suggestions for improving the tutorial? Please add any other comments in this section.

*This conclusion is based upon my teaching experience (11+ years), and that of my colleagues, in courses that cover molecular processes: Introductory Biology, Cell/Molecular Biology and Genetics. It is supported by the fact that our Biology seniors score lower on the Cellular/Molecular Biology section of the standardized, comprehensive Biology exam that they take each spring than on any other section of the exam.