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Lecture Course (lecture + course)
Selected AbstractsGenomics and bioinformatics in undergraduate curricula: Contexts for hybrid laboratory/lecture courses for entering and advanced science studentsBIOCHEMISTRY AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY EDUCATION, Issue 1 2010Louise Temple Abstract Emerging interest in genomics in the scientific community prompted biologists at James Madison University to create two courses at different levels to modernize the biology curriculum. The courses are hybrids of classroom and laboratory experiences. An upper level class uses raw sequence of a genome (plasmid or virus) as the subject on which to base the experience of genomic analysis. Students also learn bioinformatics and software programs needed to support a project linking structure and function in proteins and showing evolutionary relatedness of similar genes. An optional entry-level course taken in addition to the required first-year curriculum and sponsored in part by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, engages first year students in a primary research project. In the first semester, they isolate and characterize novel bacteriophages that infect soil bacteria. In the second semester, these young scientists annotate the genes on one or more of the unique viruses they discovered. These courses are demanding but exciting for both faculty and students and should be accessible to any interested faculty member. [source] Surgical e-learning: validation of multimedia web-based lecturesMEDICAL EDUCATION, Issue 2 2007Paul F Ridgway Background, Distance learning has been advocated increasingly as a modern efficient method of teaching surgery. Efficiency of knowledge transfer and validity of web-based courses have not been subjected to rigorous study to date. Methods, An entirely web-based surgical 5-week lecture course was designed. Fifty per cent of the lectures were prepared as HTML slides with voice-over while the other group was presented in the text-only form. Only written material presented was examined. The lectures were presented via an educational web module. The lecture series was balanced specifically to reduce the pre-existent knowledge bias. Web usage was estimated utilising surrogates, including the number of hits as well as log-on timing. Face validity was assessed by a standardised questionnaire. Results, Eighty-eight students took part in the lecture series and subsequent examination and questionnaire. Median multiple choice questionnaire (MCQ) marks were significantly higher in the aural lecture-derived stems versus the non-aural (P = 0.012, Mann,Whitney U -test). There was widespread approval of web-based learning as an adjunct to conventional teaching. Usage rates were augmented significantly in the final week when compared to the previous 4 weeks (mean total hits weeks 1,4 ± SEM: 100.9 ± 9.7 and mean total hits week 5: 152.1 ± 13.1; P < 0.001, Kruskal,Wallis). However, total hits did not correlate with overall examination results (r2 = 0.16). The aural lectures demonstrated higher face validity than the non-aural for content and presentation (P < 0.05, Kruskal,Wallis). Conclusions, The addition of aural files to the novel web-based lecture series is face valid and results in significantly increased examination performance. [source] The Place Of Geometry: Heidegger's Mathematical Excursus On AristotleTHE HEYTHROP JOURNAL, Issue 3 2001Stuart Elden ,The Place of Geometry' discusses the excursus on mathematics from Heidegger's 1924,25 lecture course on Platonic dialogues, which has been published as Volume 19 of the Gesamtausgabe as Plato's Sophist, as a starting point for an examination of geometry in Euclid, Aristotle and Descartes. One of the crucial points Heidegger makes is that in Aristotle there is a fundamental difference between arithmetic and geometry, because the mode of their connection is different. The units of geometry are positioned, the units of arithmetic unpositioned. Following Heidegger's claim that the Greeks had no word for space, and David Lachterman's assertion that there is no term corresponding to or translatable as ,space' in Euclid's Elements, I examine when the term ,space' was introduced into Western thought. Descartes is central to understanding this shift, because his understanding of extension based in terms of mathematical co-ordinates is a radical break with Greek thought. Not only does this introduce this word ,space' but, by conceiving of geometrical lines and shapes in terms of numerical co-ordinates, which can be divided, it turns something that is positioned into unpositioned. Geometric problems can be reduced to equations, the length (i.e, quantity) of lines: a problem of number. The continuum of geometry is transformed into a form of arithmetic. Geometry loses position just as the Greek notion of ,place' is transformed into the modern notion of space. [source] Teaching the Politics of Obesity: Insights into Neoliberal Embodiment and Contemporary BiopoliticsANTIPODE, Issue 5 2009Julie Guthman Abstract:, This article reflects on the author's experiences teaching an undergraduate lecture course on the politics of obesity. The course involved a critical examination of the construction and representation of the so-called epidemic of obesity and the major causal explanations for the rise in obesity. Students were unusually discomfited by the course and invoked pedagogical concerns and instructor embodiments in expressing their reactions. Student responses demonstrate how obesity talk reflects and reinforces neoliberal rationalities of self-governance, particularly those that couple bodily control and deservingness and see fatness as weakening the health of the body politic. The course also animated many students to scrutinize more deeply their own diet and exercise practices. I argue that the intensity of reaction stems from the productive power of the discourse of obesity and considerable investment students had in their bodies as neoliberal subjects. Besides classroom observations, the data in this paper are taken from student journals. [source] Memory awareness and schematization: learning in the university contextAPPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 6 2001Debra M. B. Herbert Following the application of the remember/know paradigm to student learning by Conway et al. (1997), this study examined changes in learning and memory awareness of university students in a lecture course and a research methods course. The proposed shift from a dominance of ,remember' awareness in early learning to a dominance of ,know' awareness as learning progresses and schematization occurs was evident for the methods course but not for the lecture course. The patterns of remember and know awareness and proposed associated levels of schematization were supported by a separate measure of the quality of student learning using the SOLO (Structure of Observed Learning Outcomes) Taxonomy. As found by previous research, the remember-to-know shift and schematization of knowledge is dependent upon type of course and level of achievement. Findings are discussed in terms of the utility of the methodology used, the theoretical implications and the applications to educational practice. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Incorporating a collaborative web-based virtual laboratory in an undergraduate bioinformatics courseBIOCHEMISTRY AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY EDUCATION, Issue 1 2010David Weisman Abstract Face-to-face bioinformatics courses commonly include a weekly, in-person computer lab to facilitate active learning, reinforce conceptual material, and teach practical skills. Similarly, fully-online bioinformatics courses employ hands-on exercises to achieve these outcomes, although students typically perform this work offsite. Combining a face-to-face lecture course with a web-based virtual laboratory presents new opportunities for collaborative learning of the conceptual material, and for fostering peer support of technical bioinformatics questions. To explore this combination, an in-person lecture-only undergraduate bioinformatics course was augmented with a remote web-based laboratory, and tested with a large class. This study hypothesized that the collaborative virtual lab would foster active learning and peer support, and tested this hypothesis by conducting a student survey near the end of the semester. Respondents broadly reported strong benefits from the online laboratory, and strong benefits from peer-provided technical support. In comparison with traditional in-person teaching labs, students preferred the virtual lab by a factor of two. Key aspects of the course architecture and design are described to encourage further experimentation in teaching collaborative online bioinformatics laboratories. [source] Experimenting with a computer-mediated collaborative interaction model to support engineering coursesCOMPUTER APPLICATIONS IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION, Issue 3 2004David A. Fuller Abstract Many of the engineering education lecture courses are taught only with the support of a board or transparencies. In both cases, the students have to copy the material passed in class, including additional annotations and comments. We performed a controlled experiment to measure the impact of the insertion of a computer mediated collaborative interaction model to support the teaching/learning process in such scenarios, using a Web-based computer application. Our experiment was done during two consecutive semesters of a First Year Programming Engineering course, with 447 enrolled students where 234 students were surveyed. In this paper, we describe the design and execution of the experiment, and show the obtained results. Based on our results, we conclude that there are advantages of using a collaborative interaction model supported by a collaborative software tool in an Engineering course such as the experimented. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 12: 175,188, 2004; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com); DOI 10.1002/cae.20012 [source] Informing Theory from Practice and Applied ResearchJOURNAL OF SOCIAL ISSUES, Issue 3 2006Patricia Gurin Editors' introduction: Patricia Gurin grew up in southern Indiana where citizens split in support of the South and the North during the Civil War, and where the Ku Klux Klan was founded. After graduating from Northwestern University, she worked with the American Friends Service Committee (the social action voice of the Quakers). Later, after earning her PhD in social psychology at the University of Michigan, she (with Edgar Epps) conducted a study of students attending historically Black colleges, focusing on how the vast majority integrated collective and individual achievements, worked with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and stayed in college at the same time. That work initiated her life-long interest in personal and group identity. Most recently, Gurin presented expert testimony in the 2003 Supreme Court cases on affirmative action and the use of race in college admissions decisions. This social science evidence, providing strong support for the compelling interest for diversity in higher education, was widely cited in the majority opinion favoring race-conscious admission policies. Gurin brings this rich activist scholarship to her commentary and discusses the promise of practice and applied research for informing theory. She traces her own professional biography, one that evolved from being a researcher (using primarily national surveys) and teacher (primarily large lecture courses) to becoming intimately involved in teaching through interactive, small group learning communities. Gurin brings to light contributions from the articles that converge on theorizing about the social context such that the theorizing can take into account differences rather than be applied universally. [source] Problem-Based Learning Biotechnology Courses in Chemical EngineeringBIOTECHNOLOGY PROGRESS, Issue 1 2006Charles E. Glatz We have developed a series of upper undergraduate/graduate lecture and laboratory courses on biotechnological topics to supplement existing biochemical engineering, bioseparations, and biomedical engineering lecture courses. The laboratory courses are based on problem-based learning techniques, featuring two- and three-person teams, journaling, and performance rubrics for guidance and assessment. Participants initially have found them to be difficult, since they had little experience with problem-based learning. To increase enrollment, we are combining the laboratory courses into 2-credit groupings and allowing students to substitute one of them for the second of our 2-credit chemical engineering unit operations laboratory courses. [source] | |||||||||||||