Overview of The Biology Project

The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation has provided a grant to Dr. Michael Gottfredsen, University of Arizona Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, to support a design team charged with developing the general structure and supportive materials needed to deliver student-oriented, highly interactive learning materials on the worldwide web. These learning materials are used to support the lecture, laboratory and discussion sessions of general education courses.

Over the two-year period of the award, the design team will be responsible for:

Developing and implementing standardized instructional modules for a lower-division course in natural science and one in humanities/social science
Using the modules to encourage and foster links between teaching and research faculty in order to provide the means to deliver cutting-edge research information to students
Establishing links with other units on campus which support instructional development with an eye towards extending or customizing the course modules beyond the terms of the project
Providing outreach services to faculty unfamiliar with the power of current advancements in instructional technology.

Phase 1: The Biology Project

The first phase of this two-year project uses the entry level biology course (Biology 181) at the University of Arizona as a model for development and testing. Biology 181 is a general education course with a laboratory component and an enrollment of over 1,500 students every Fall.

Phase 2: The Architecture Project

For the second phase, The Biology Project has chosen to team with UA's Imagen, an online multimedia visual database, to develop materials for Architecture & Society. Imagen is a rich resource of imagery in the humanities that is already being used as a learning tool in Architecture 101. Architecture 101 is a general education course offered jointly by Architecture and Humanities, with an enrollment of 150-180 students every semester. The results of this collaboration can be found at The Architecture Project.

The Deliverable

The deliverable from the project will be the courseware created by the design team. Since courseware development will take place on a worldwide web site, there will be an ongoing record of the project's progress, and a continuing opportunity for evaluation and feedback. The project style manual is also available as a record of the web site's internal organization. So far, feedback from students and teachers who have visited the site has been very positive.

The Biology Project
The University of Arizona
Tuesday, April 22, 1997
Contact the Development Team