Project BIO Update - January 1996

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What we've accomplished so far.

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1. Project BIO Steering Committee. This ISU committee is guiding the development of Project BIO. Members of the committee are Tom Ingebritsen, Zool & Gen; Bernie White, Biochem & Biophys; Tom Jurik, Botany; Doug Bull, Zool & Gen; Ed Powell, Zool & Gen; George Brown, Zool & Gen; Bob Andrews, MI/PM; and John Pleasants, Zool & Gen. The chairs of Biochemistry/Biophysics (Marit Nilsen-Hamilton), Botany (David Oliver) and Zoology/Genetics (Duane Enger) as well as the director of the biology program (Warren Dolphin) are serving as ex-officio members of the Steering Committee.
   
   
2. Project BIO Seminar Series. This series, held during the fall semester 1995, explored the past, present and future uses of technology in teaching and outreach for the sciences. The seminar speakers and their topics are listed below.
   
   
3. Community College Advisory Committee. This group consists of nine biology teachers from eight community college districts. Members of the committee are Karin VanMeter, Des Moines Area Community College, Dr. Paul A. Mayes, Eastern Iowa Community College District, Connie Vinton-Schoepske, Hawkeye Community College, Carol Armstrong, Iowa Central Community College, Ronald D. Weiss, Iowa Western Community College, Dr. Tim Armstrong, Indian Hills Community College, Dr. Wilmar Jansma, Kirkwood Community College, Iowa City Campus, Dr. Mary Lou Lauer, Kirkwood Community College, Cedar Rapids Campus, Dr. Bob Boes, Iowa Lakes Community College. The group was recruited in September and met for the first time in October 1995. We continue to communicate with the committee by phone, fax and email. The committee helped us identify key material for the Project BIO world wide web site. The committee also did research to identify the community college biology instructors in Iowa that need help in gaining internet access.
   
   
4. Fund Raising. We raised ~ $78,000 during the Fall of 1995. The funds were contributed by the Provost, College of Agriculture, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Department of Zoology and Genetics, Botany Department, Office of Biotechnology and the Howard Hughes group at ISU. These funds will be used to:
   
   
   • help community college biology teachers connect to the internet
   • for on-site training activities at the community colleges during Spring 1996 (see Plans for Spring and Summer 1996)
   • for a world wide web server for Project BIO
   • to help establish a Project BIO office
   • for the development of internet courses.
   
   
5. Project BIO Listserver. This mailing list was set up using Majordomo on Project Vincent. It is used to facilitate communication among those interested in Project BIO. It currently includes the Project BIO steering committee, the Community College Advisory Committee and other interested parties at ISU. Community college and high school biology instructors will be added to the list as the project develops.
   

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What are our plans for 1996?

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1. Connecting community college biology faculty to the internet. Research done by our community College Advisory Committee revealed that approximately 50% of the 129 community college biology instructors in Iowa have access to the internet either through a computer in their office or through a shared computer in a nearby office. The other 65 biology faculty need help. Part of the funds that we raised during the fall semester will be used for this purpose. In most cases we will provide a 14.4 kbs modem (if needed) and connect time for one year to a suitable internet provider. In certain special cases we are providing other types of help. We plan to complete the process of connecting community college biology teachers to the internet by the end of January.
   
   
2. Project BIO World-Wide Web Site. We plan to launch the site in January. At the time of launch the site will have descriptions, syllabi and lecture outlines for the Biol 201 and Biol 202 courses at ISU. We also plan to have syllabi and course objectives at the site for the comparable freshman biology courses at the 15 Iowa community colleges. Later we plan to make similar information available about other biology courses at ISU and the community colleges. The site will also have ISU and community college faculty directories, Iowa Association of Community College Biology Teachers Newsletters, workshop and meeting announcements, information about Project BIO and links to other biology related world-wide web sites. It will also be the site of access for Project BIO internet courses and for the Project BIO electronic seminar series. Development of the web site will continue throughout the spring and summer.
   
   
3. On-Site Training Activities. Dr. Ingebritsen or another member of the Project BIO steering committee plan to visit each of the Iowa community colleges during Spring 1996 to introduce community college biology teachers and administrators to Project BIO and to train them in the use of the Project BIO web site and the Project BIO listserver.
   
   
4. High School Advisory Committee. We plan to complete the recruiting of this committee and meet with the group in the Spring of 1996.
   
   
5. Project BIO Seminar Series. We plan to continue this seminar series during the Spring and Fall semesters of 1996 with two significant changes. First we plan to make the seminars available over the internet. Second we plan to broaden the scope of the seminars to include recent advances in biology as well as biology instructional techniques.
   
   
   • Here is how we are going to make the presentations available over the internet. The image and text portions of each seminar presentation will be converted to files in the portable document format (PDF) using a program called Adobe Acrobat. This approach has several advantages over the HTML format typically used on the world wide web. First documents or presentations created using other word processing or presentation programs (e.g. powerpoint) can readily be converted to the PDF format with retention of all of the formating in the original document. Second, the files in the PDF format are platform independent; that is they can be viewed with a free piece of software called the Acrobat Reader that can be downloaded from the Adobe corporation world wide web site (http://www.adobe.com/). We will provide a link to this site from the Project BIO web site. Third, it is possible to incorporate hypertext links into the PDF documents. This makes it very easy to navigate in the documents and allows one to build in links to documents available at other sites on the world wide web.
     
     
   • The audio portions of the seminar presentations will be recorded, digitized and made available from the Project BIO web site using software called RealAudio. There are two key features of this software. First it provides a super compression of the audio files such that 1 hour of audio only occupies 3-5 MB of disc space. Second, the audio is delivered as a real time audio stream which is played as it is received and not saved on the client computer. This provides almost instantaneous access to the audio files and eliminates the need for disk space on the client computer to store the files. Software called the RealAudio Player is used to listen to the audio on the client computer. The software is free and can be downloaded from the RealAudio world wide web site (http://www.realaudio.com/). We will have a link to this site from the Project BIO world wide web site. We are purchasing the RealAudio server software that will be used to deliver the audio files.
   
   
6. Internet Courses. Three biology internet courses are in the planning stages. They are: 1) A biotechnology course for non-biology majors, 2) a microbiology survey course and 3) an introductory microbiology course for majors. The goal is to introduce these course in the Fall semester of 1996.
   
   
   • The plan for the Biotech course is to deliver multimedia lectures which would be accessed from the Project BIO www site. The text and image portion of the lectures would be delivered using the Adobe Acrobat software and the audio portion would be delivered using RealAudio software (see Project BIO seminar series for more details). Students will be able to ask questions and participate in class discussions through a listserver set up for the course and through interactive web pages. The listserver will also be used to post announcements for the class. We also plan to incorporate active learning experiences into the course. Administration and testing for the course will be handled using Coursenet (a new software package being developed by Pete Boysen and others in the Computation Center). A similar approach will be used for the two microbiology courses.
     
     
   • It will be important to involve individuals from outside ISU in the planning and development of biology internet courses. These would include community college and high school biology faculty as will as representatives from industry. Community college and high school students are important potential clientel for internet courses. Biol 201 and 202 could be offered as an alternative to advanced placement biology for small high schools that don't have the resources or sufficient numbers of students to offer such a course. These courses might also be attractive to biology students at community colleges that don't have the resources or staffing to offer such courses. Additionally upper level biology courses might be attractive to non-traditional students at community colleges who have difficulty getting to a four year college campus. Similarly industry might be interested in internet courses for training or continuing education of biology personnel.
   
   
7. Project BIO Resource Center. We plan to begin establishing this center during 1996. The center will have personnel who will provide technical support, training and assistance in the preparation of internet course material and other items for the Project BIO web site. It will also have world wide web authoring stations. Finally it will be the physical location of the world wide web and RealAudio servers.
   
   
   • Dr. Tom Ingebritsen will be professor-in-charge of the facility. Pete Lloyd is a teaching assistant who will work for the Center during the Spring semester and part of the summer. His primary focus will be the Biotech internet course but he will also be helping with the Project BIO seminar series. We plan to hire one or more undergraduate students who will assist in developing course and other material for the Project BIO web site. Finally we hope later in the year to hire an Instructional Technologist who will manage the Project BIO office, identify new world wide web technologies, provide technical support, and train faculty, staff and students in the use of world wide web technologies.
     
     
   • These will consist of computers with software for authoring HTML documents, for creating PDF files, and for sound digitizing and processing. Each station will also have the microsoft office suite, a drawing program (Aldus Freehand) and Adobe Photoshop (image processing). We have purchased a portable audio tape recorder which can be used to record audio presentations either in a quiet area to be set up in the Project BIO office or in a lecture room.
   
   
8. Fund Raising - Needs.
   
   
   • Project BIO Office. Additional funds will be needed for infrastructure to support the Project BIO web site and internet courses. This includes funding for equipment, software and remodeling to set up the Project BIO office. In addition there will be recurring costs for personnel and for equipment and software upgrades.
     
   • Community colleges. Funding here would be for biology computer labs to support access by students to courses and other materials at the Project BIO web site. The idea would be to help community colleges set up biology computer labs with internet access. Optimally the computers would have audio as well as video capabilities, digital video cameras for video conferencing using the CUSeeMe technology and ear phones. We will work with our Community College Advisory Committee to better the needs in this area.
     
   • Curriculum development - A peer-reviewed mini grant program to support release time and other would be an ideal way to encourage joint curriculum development projects involving instructors at ISU, Iowa community colleges and Iowa high schools.
     
   • High Schools. Consultation with the High School Advisory committee will better define the needs here. However, it is clear that funding is needed to help high school biology teachers connect to the internet. Also we could work with selected high schools to establish computer labs that would allow their students take Biol 201 and 202.
   
   
9. Fund Raising - Plans.
   
   We will develop a proposal to submit to the Vision 2020 project for funding to help in the development and delivery of internet courses. The deadline for this proposal is March 1, 1996. We plan to develop a preproposal that will be sent to contacts at NSF in order to identify the most appropriate program for a full proposal. We will work with the development offices in the LAS and Ag colleges to identify potential sources of private or foundation funding.