Development of a Web-based Teaching and Learning System in Plant Biology at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio

目前正在开发植物科学的因特网教学系统，包括建立一个专门的网站，作为植物学教学相关教材的储存库。这个植物学信息库包括数字化和编辑的静止视频和显微镜图像、Quicktime 3.0电影、自然现象的延时视频、虚拟现实模拟以及研究人员准备的计算机动画。大多数商业上可获得的植物生物学教育CD、动画和网页明显缺乏质量和科学可靠性。因此，出于需要，我们正在创建我们自己的高质量教育材料，供讲座和实验室使用。除了创建教育材料外，我们还在为本科生以及职前和在职教师试验一个基于网络的发布系统。有了这个系统，学生可以发布他们的报告，允许对PI和Co-PI近年来发展的成功的实验室活动进行同行审查。这个项目的一个重要部分也是探索培训和鼓励其他教职员工使用这些教育技术的方法。最后，教育材料将在全国范围内提供，不仅通过互联网，而且还以教育CD和视频的形式，通过图书或CD出版商以负担得起的成本分发。这是必要的，因为我们的大多数材料都是基于非常大的文件大小，而在目前的技术下，这些文件不容易在互联网上传输。

An Internet-based teaching and learning system for plant sciences is being developed, including the establishment of a dedicated web site that will serve as a repository for educational materials related to the teaching of botany. This library of botanical information includes digitized and edited still video and microscope images, Quicktime 3.0 movies, time-lapse videos of natural phenomena, virtual reality simulations, as well as computer animations prepared by the investigators. Most commercially available plant biology educational CDs, animations, and web pages suffer from a clear lack of quality and scientific soundness. Thus, out of necessity, we are creating our own high-quality educational materials for use in lectures and labs. In addition to the creation of educational materials, we are experimenting with a web-based publishing system for our undergraduate students as well as pre-service and in-service teachers. With this system, students publish their reports, allowing for peer review of successful laboratory activities which the PI and Co-PI have developed in recent years. An important part of this project is also to explore methods for training and encouraging other faculty members to use these educational techologies. Finally, educational materials will be made available nationally, not only through the Internet but also as educational CDs and videos, distributed at an affordable cost through a book or CD publisher. This is necessary because most of our materials are based on very large file sizes that can't easily be transmitted over the Internet with current technology.