The Evolution of a Biology
Course-Related Web Site
Presented on 15 April 2000 at the 11th International Conference
on College Teaching and Learning in Jacksonville, Fla.
by Janet L. Stein Carter
Assistant Professor of Biology
University of Cincinnati — Clermont College

1. 
   • If you don’t already have it installed, get the Corel ShowIt! plugin. Save this somewhere you’ll remember, then (get out of your browser and) run it to install the plugin. (January 2013 while upgrading to CSS: Corel hasn’t supported their plugin for a long time, so I just converted the title sequence from this talk to a QuickTime movie.)
   • If you don’t already have it installed, get Quicktime 4 and install it (note: to find a link to the free version, you may have to scroll to the bottom of their page). Caution: this will probably want you to reboot your computer, after which, you’ll have to get back to here, again. (January 2013 while upgrading to CSS: Obviously, by now, there are much newer versions of QuickTime available.)
   • These were, roughly, my verbal comments, so you may wish to print out this page, first, to follow along as you view the presentation. (January 2013 while upgrading to CSS: . . . or just open it in a separate window or tab)
   • Warning: this series of Web pages was created to function as a presentation running directly off a HD or CD (in Netscape and at 800 × 600 screen size, “true color,” not just 256 colors, with all Netscape bars at the top reduced and not showing, and with a sound card and speakers present), not really over the Web. Some of the files may be rather large and may take a long time to load “long-distance.”
   • You will need the Corel ShowIt!® plugin to view the title page. It is a frame page, so when it fades to black, there is a tiny 1% of screen height frame at the bottom which contains the invisible “button” to go to the next page (watch for the mouse pointer to change to a hand). (January 2013 while upgrading to CSS: There is now a button-style link to use.)
   • → Begin Presentation ←
2. 
   • Clermont College is a 2-year branch campus of the Univ. of Cincinnati.
     • located ~ 20 mi outside of Cincinnati in a rural area
     • open access, which means “anyone” can come to school here
   • Only full-time, matriculated students have to take placement tests. Part-time and non-matriculated students can just sign-up for courses.
   • Many of our students are poorly-prepared for college — many cannot read or do math at a college level.
   • Many are single parents with full-time jobs and are paying their own way to go “back” to school.
   • Click on the picture of the college to go to the next page.
3. 
   • Often these students will approach the faculty member at the 1^st class period RE known need to miss a class due to a business trip, etc.
   • Since they often rush to school from work, they don’t get to know the other students, thus think instructor’s notes should be better than a classmate’s.
   • Thus, a number have asked for copies of my lecture notes for missed classes,
   • but my notes are “shorthand” that they wouldn’t understand and don’t always reflect what was actually discussed in class.
   • Several years ago, I decided to put “lecture notes” on the Web for the non-majors’, freshman, General Biology sequence so I could send students there to get missed notes.
   • Click on the left, above the words to go to the next page.
4. 
   • Unlike other sketchy outlines I had seen on the Web, I decided to use full narrative form to explain things as clearly as possible.
   • During lecture, I draw many illustrations on the chalkboard, and I expect students to know these for tests.
   • These had to be recreated and included to further clarify the notes.
   • This also gave me the opportunity to experiment with a few “show-n-tell” things that I could use in class.
   • Click on the mushroom to go to the next page.
5. 
   • These pages were initially served on Clermont’s VAX, so I had no idea of how much they were being used, other than students’ verbal comments.
   • When my desktop PC was upgraded to one running Win95, I was able to load MS-Personal Web Server and transfer the existing pages to there.
   • This gave me the opportunity, while usage was still low, of tracking usage statistics.
   • Click on “usage climbed. . .”
   • Now, the weekly server log files are too large to import into a spreadsheet for analysis — (~6000 requests for files served per day).
   • Click on “many of these hits. . .”
   • I have received e-mail from a number of college and HS faculty and students with requests for links, questions, comments, and thanks.
   • Click on “many other sites. . .”
   • Click on the graph to go to the next page.
6. 
   • Absent students I had sent there told others about the pages.
   • Click on the “brown” area.
   • Students who knew how to use a Web browser willingly paired up with neophytes and showed them how to access the online notes.
   • Click on the “brown” area.
   • Students started accessing the pages to prepare for class.
   • They printed pages to follow along in class as they took their own notes.
     • Students have not stopped coming to class because of the availability of the notes.
   • They said the pages were of use after class to “fill in the holes” in their notes.
   • Click on the “brown” area.
   • A student who was hospitalized, then put on total bed rest was able to access the online notes, and a friend brought her notes from in class, enabling her to finish the quarter rather than drop the class.
   • Click on the “brown” area.
   • On 2 subsequent occasions, students have been able to take a course when it wasn’t normally offered by learning from the online notes.
   • In both cases they were taking the 3^rd quarter in a 3-quarter sequence, and each ended up getting the same grade as in the previous 2 quarters.
   • Click on the “brown” area.
   • That, and other indicators, would suggest that student performance is linked to their overall study skills rather than the Web being “the” thing that makes a difference — rather, use of the Web is just another tool for them.
   • Click on the “brown” area.
   • graph: Analysis of average test scores vs. estimated Web usage for 10 students in one course showed no direct correlation.
   • Click on the “brown” area.
   • graph: These 3 students began with about the same scores. 2 were “good” students: one Web-user and one who knew how but *chose* not to (her final score was a reflection of the illness and death of a parent). 1 was a student who thought she could just skim the online notes rather than take her own notes and study them.
   • Click on the “brown” area.
7. 
   • In the subsequent time, these pages have been further modified and refined.
   • Based on the knowledge that students regularly access the pages as a study tool, one goal has been to make them more interactive.
   • mitosis: Animated .gifs were created to better show processes normally drawn as a series of chalkboard illustrations.
   • biology (wait for .wav file to load): Students say they can’t spell words they can’t pronounce, so popup pronunciations, definitions, and wordstems have been added.
   • Lorenz (QuickTime needed to view movie): Digitized video can illustrate some points better than photos in the textbook.
   • sugar: An interactive graphic that mimics an in-class demonstration gives students the chance to manipulate and see what happens.
   • news: Students have long been required to submit “newsnotes” — use of a scripting language made it possible to enable them to do this online and to submit comments online (as well as class discussion).
   • muscles (photo of man at beach): Students can practice names/locations of some of the major muscles with an interactive muscle “quiz” (using image map and JavaScript).
   • monohybrid cross: Students have trouble with Punnett squares, so an interactive series of these were designed as an online tutorial/practice.
   • beetle: One of the newest additions is a “Concentration”-style insect orders names “game” (original version has audio feedback).
   • Click on the mitosis animation (which sometimes freezes or disappears when you load the child pages) to go to the next page.
8. 
   • Web pages were also created for the freshman (both majors’ and non-majors’) lab sequences.
   • Initally, one goal was to replace the spreadsheets that had been used to collect lab data.
   • Spreadsheets had been a problem because all 20 students in a lab section had to use the same PC (long lines) and frequently overwrote each other’s data.
   • Click on “HTML forms and Perl scripts. . .”
   • When Web pages were first tried for data collection, students said they liked them better (more colorful?).
   • popup: Other advantages quickly became apparent.
   • Click on “wildflower quiz. . . ” — only March and April are functional here, but in the real one, all months are functional (though no flowers in winter).
   • wildflowers: As part of our lab program, we take students on nature hikes to study local flora and fauna, and they are subsequently tested over these.
     • My colleague and I have been photographing local wildflowers.
     • To aid students in studying and recognizing these flowers, JavaScript was used to create a practice wildflower “quiz.”
   • Click on “checklist. . .”
   • checklist: Initally a list of local spp. was created as part of Soph. Ecol. campus data,
     • but freshmen students found it and used it to look up sci. names.
     • Thus, this was subsequently also linked to photos where available.
   • Click on the big picture on the right to go to the next page.
9. 
   • Online lecture notes, tutorials, and lab data-gathering Web pages were also subsequently created for the Soph. Ecol. and Evoln. course.
   • globe: Corel Presentations can make a “slide show” then bundle it up for presentation on the Web — this can much more effectively show processes than the original, still drawings in a book.
   • sun (run the mouse over the “springtime” picture): “Surprise,” interactive graphics can be use to reinforce and draw attention to a point.
   • ecology (top, horizontal one — try both running mouse over and clicking on the “forest”): Interactive graphics (image maps) give students more information about what they’re seeing.
   • Q10 (each time will be different): JS can be used to generate a series of practice problems and give students feedback on whether they got the right answer.
   • moth (try graph at the very end): When discussing effects of natural selection on English Peppered Moths, JS can be used to not only graph the known data, but to allow students to manipulate the numbers and see what happens.
   • ghost (press “show me” after the life table before you press “show me” to see the graph): Since there are a lot more mathematical concepts to be mastered in this course, a series of online “worksheets” was created.
     • These allow students to do problems and get feedback.
     • Many of these include randomly-generated problems so students don’t see the same thing every time.
     • Note that JS can be used to resize graphics to represent data.
     • Normally a solid color is used, but to make the point, some of the other graphics from this presentation were used here.
   • Click “ecology” (side, vertical one) to go to the next page.
10. 
    • movies: With our large number of part-time faculty with varying knowledge and teaching ability, compliance with lab safety issues and/or knowledge of lab topics varies a lot,
      • also how much they tell their students (pre-lab intro) or expect them to know.
      • Thus, we are working on creation of a series of pre-lab / lab-intro digitized videos for all faculty and their students to use.
    • move (click center bottom, just below the border to close child window): The use of the Web site has outgrown what PWS/Win95 can handle, and we recently got a new,“real” server (NT/IIS), (January 2013 while upgrading to CSS: Obviously, by now, that’s been upgraded a number of times.)
      • thus a major thing I need to work on in the next few months is migrating all the files from one PC to the other, while not disrupting student access.
    • Some ongoing things we’re mulling over include:
      • How can we help PT faculty who are interested in creating Web materials for for their sections of courses and encourage all of them who are interested to put at least syllabi online?
      • Some students don’t read their textbook and come to class unprepared, so “first exposure” occurs in the classroom and we can’t get beyond the basics.
        • Would they be any more likely to read a Web page if required so class time could be used for more in-depth coverage?
      • What would be involved/would it be possible to “really” offer these courses online? (see list of issues) (January 2013 while upgrading to CSS: Just like “everyone else,” by now, we’ve done that, too.)
    • Click “biology” (side, vertical one) to go to the next page.
11. 
    • For anyone who’s interested here’s a list of most of the software used to create these pages.
    • My main/favorite HTML editor is good, old DOS-Edit — that way, I have much more control over exactly what I want things to do/look like. (January 2013 while upgrading to CSS: Add CSS to that list, now, too.)
      • I began working on all of this on a 286 with no HD and only 512 K of RAM, and Edit would run off a diskette.
      • (However, if I’m showing students or other faculty how to create Web pages, I usually start them out with Netscape Composer.) (January 2013 while upgrading to CSS: These days, SeaMonkey has that same functionality.)
    • I often work on Web pages/graphics at home then either use WS-FTP to upload files to my PC at school or (if lots of stuff) use a Zip disk to transfer.
    • Most of this was done on a budget of $0!
    • Click the graphic (top of beetle head) below the list of software to go to the next page.
12. 
    • Note that animated .gifs can have an interesting effect when used as a background.
    • Thanks for coming to my presentation.
    • questions?
    • Click on the address to close the window.