Navigating the cyberlearning landscape:
A case study involving teaching the central dogma of biology
Justin Pruneski
Sam Donovan
Department of Biological Sciences
Cyberlearning at Community Colleges
www.c3cyberlearning.ning.com
Introduction
Cyberlearning—learning that is mediated by networked computing and
communications technologies—is increasingly influencing undergraduate science
education and is providing useful new models for engaging students (Borgman, 2008).
Finding effective and innovative ways to harness the immense resources available on
the web and applying them to learning is a significant challenge facing educators
today. This project sets out to identify and characterize ways that college biology
faculty can use digital resources to engage students in meaningful learning (Jonassen
et al. 2003). We focus on a single core topic area, the central dogma of molecular
biology, highlighting example resources and strategies that can be applied to other
topics and courses. Our goal for the project is to raise faculty awareness about the
availability of diverse online resources and suggest innovative teaching approaches
that take advantage of the new information landscape. This poster contains a sample
of the materials that have been compiled, a pedagogical characterization of the types
of resources available, a discussion of search strategies for finding resources and
suggestions for their use in teaching undergraduate biology.
What are the challenges of teaching the central dogma?
The central dogma of molecular biology is an
essential topic for all Introduction to Biology courses.
It is fundamental to understanding biology and is
reiterated and built upon in nearly every advanced
Biology course. It is often a difficult concept for
students to grasp, particularly the way in which
information flows from DNA to RNA to Protein (e.g.,
Glykos, 2011). The processes involved are also
highly dynamic and require many different factors,
making them difficult to visualize.
http://ocw.num.edu.mn/OcwWeb/Physics/
8-592JSpring-2005/LectureNotes/detail/cendogma.html
Digital libraries: online sources of learning materials
The National Science Digital Library program has produced curated collections of
online teaching and learning materials built through contributions from the
education and research communities (Mervis, 2009). Unfortunately, there is not one
centralized database, but rather, materials are spread out across many different
libraries, each having their own organization and focus.
The example assignment shown below takes advantage of the many different
representations of the processes of transcription and translation that can be harvested
from digital libraries. After viewing three different animations, students answer
questions regarding how each video portrayed a certain aspect of the topic. They can
examine the level of detail of each video and why certain features were portrayed as
they were. By examining multiple sources, the students get different perspectives that
can be combined to enhance their understanding of the subject. This practice gives
the student more engagement with the material, rather than simply watching a single
video, requires comparisons across representations, and allows the student to make
decisions about the quality of each representation, as a teacher would when choosing
an animation to show to the class.
View
each
of
the
following
anima3ons
and
answer
the
ques3ons.
You
may
want
to
keep
them
open
in
separate
browser
windows
so
you
can
move
back
and
forth
between
them.
#1
#2
#3
NSDL
National Science
Digital Library
www.nsdl.org - The NSF-funded online library for education and research in
Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.
BEN
BiosciEdNet
www.biosciednet.org/portal - The NSDL pathway for biological sciences education
housing over 12, 067 reviewed resources covering 77 biological sciences topics.
OER Commons
Open Educational
Resources
www.oercommons.org - With over 125 major content partners...access over 20,000
open educational resources...OER Commons currently has over 8,000 registered
users and users from 193 countries.
APS Archive
American
Physiological
Society
www.apsarchive.org - More than 2,200 peer-reviewed teaching resources including
audiovisual materials, lesson plans, teaching journal articles, and scientific content
materials.
AMSER
Applied Math and
Science Education
Repository
amser.org - A portal of educational resources and services built specifically for use by
those in Community and Technical Colleges.
MicrobeLibrary
www.microbelibrary.org - Over 2000 resources for teaching and learning microbiology
from 7 collections.
BioQUEST
bioquest.org - The BioQUEST collection contains Investigative Cases, Problem
Curriculum
Spaces, simulations and datasets collaboratively developed by faculty.
Consortium Library
How can cyberlearning facilitate meaningful learning?
Action Bioscience
Listed below are some practices that cyberlearning activities can mediate or
encourage. They emphasize student-centered approaches where learning is
active, intentional, constructive, authentic, and cooperative (Jonassen et al. 2003).
Nature Scitable
Providing high-quality content – A variety of learning resources can be found
online for any given topic.
Student-directed learning – Students are actively involved in the obtaining and
processing of information.
Collaboration – Students work together to build more meaningful work than each
student could achieve on his/her own.
Using scientific data – Students can view, manipulate, and interpret real scientific
data in order to test hypotheses and form conclusions.
Modeling professional practices – Through activities such as case studies and
simulations, students practice skills useful in their future careers.
Relevance – Cyberlearning activities often use real-world examples to put topics
into the correct context.
Access to multiple resources and perspectives – By comparing and
contrasting multiple resources, they can achieve more understanding than simply
analyzing one resource (see example in top right panel).
Interdisciplinary investigations – Cyberlearning skills can be used in any subject
and often blend many different disciplines.
Adaptability – Many resources can be customized to meet the specific needs of
the teacher or class.
Making the learning process visible – Both teachers and students can monitor
student work and reflect on what works and what does not.
Leaving a digital legacy – Studentsʼ work is preserved online and can be viewed
or expanded in the future.
Example activity: using multiple animations to
dissect transcription and translation
Actionbioscience.org - A non-commercial, educational web site published by the
American Institute of Biological Sciences created to promote bioscience literacy by
focusing on issues with articles provided by scientists and science educators.
www.nature.com/scitable - A free science library and personal learning tool by Nature
Publishing Group currently focusing on Genetics and Cell Biology.
Examples of cyberlearning resources
DNAi – www.dnai.org - A part of the Dolan DNA Learning Center (www.dnalc.org)
created by the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. This website provides a historical
perspective for the molecular biology revolution, telling the story of DNA through the
scientists and experiments that unraveled its mysteries. The site also includes
animations and walkthroughs allowing students to decode the information contained in
DNA, use lab techniques to manipulate genetic material, explore genomics, and see
real world applications of DNA science.
NCBI Bookshelf – www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books - Provides free access to over 700
texts in life science and healthcare. The website is designed to allow easy browsing,
retrieval, and reading of science content.
Aipotu – intro.bio.umb.edu/aipotu - Pronounced “ay poh too,” the name is “Utopia”
reversed. This software, developed by Brian White at the University of
Massachusetts-Boston, simulates the genetics, biochemistry, molecular biology, and
evolution of organisms in a biologically reasonable and pedagogically relevant way.
#1
Clip
from
PBS
produc3on
DNA:
The
secret
of
life
hHp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41_Ne5mS2ls&feature=related
#2
PaHy
Hain
and
Nathan
Wambaugh:
University
of
Nebraska
hHp://www.class.unl.edu/biochem/gp2/m_biology/anima3on/gene/gene_a1.html
#3
Learn
Gene3cs:
University
of
Utah
hHp://learn.gene3cs.utah.edu/content/begin/dna/firefly/
1.
Based
on
your
ini3al
viewing,
which
of
the
anima3ons
was
the
most
interes3ng
to
you?
Please
briefly
describe
your
choice.
2.
The
table
below
lists
3
key
biological
features
that
are
important
for
gene
expression.
Rank
the
anima3ons
on
how
clearly
they
represent
the
process.
3 key biological features
1. The RNA Polymerase is recruited to a
geneʼs regulatory elements (promoter).
Animation
Animation
Animation
#1
#2
#3
Rank the animations for each feature.
2. Transcription and translation occur at
different times and at different locations
within the cell.
3. tRNA molecules bring amino acids to the
mRNA in order for the ribosome to
assemble the polypeptide chain.
3.
Where
in
the
eukaryo3c
cell
do
the
processes
of
transcrip3on
and
transla3on
take
place?
Compare
and
contrast
how
the
anima3ons
represented
this
feature.
4.
Describe
a
feature
from
one
of
the
anima3ons
that
was
very
useful
to
you
and
one
that
was
very
confusing
to
you.
References and resources
Borgman, C. (2008). Fostering Learning in the Networked World: The Cyberlearning
Opportunity and Challenge. Report of the NSF Taskforce on Cyberlearning. NSF,
Arlington, VA.
Brewer, C. and Smith, D. (eds.)(2011). Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology
Education: A Call to Action. AAAS, Washington D.C.
Glykos, N. (2011). The 11th Misconception? CBE-Life Science Education. 10:1-2.
Jonassen D.H. et al. (2003) Learning to Solve Problems with Technology: A
Constructivist Perspective. 2nd Ed. Merrill Prentice Hall. Columbus, OH.
Mervis, J. (2009). NSF Rethinks Its Digital Library. Science, 323 (5910), 54-58.
This material is based upon work supported by the National
Science Foundation under Grants No. 0937791 & 0737474.
Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations
expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not
necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.