In order to promote more active engagement of science undergraduates in histology practical classes some technology-based innovations were introduced. First, an interactive pre-lab tutorial was set up using an electronic handset voting system, where guidance on tissue analysis was given. Second, a web-based resource where students could access…

A new module for Level 1 students called "Science Investigations" provides an introduction to practical work, in an on-line environment. Most of the activities in the module require observational or experimental work done at home, with only the field work being "virtual". The aim is to encourage practical and group work in an era when the amount…

Graduate employability is an important concern for contemporary universities. Alongside the development of employability skills, it is also crucial that students of bioscience, a "non-vocational" subject, have awareness of the breadth of potential careers that can follow from their initial degree. Over the past five years we have developed the…

Plant families are the level of the taxonomic hierarchy that many biologists use to organise their understanding of plant diversity. Consequently, from many perspectives, it is very useful to be able to recognise the major plant families "on sight". To this end numerous books and web sites have described and illustrated plant families, but few…

We report the preliminary results of work with a unique, web-site-based approach designed to help individual bioscientists identify and develop their individual creative capacity. The site includes a number of features that encourage individuals to interact with creativity techniques, communicate with colleagues remotely using an electronic notice…

The benefits of a "developing" teaching style, in which a specific topic is developed on a white- or blackboard, commonly known as "chalk and talk", have been widely acknowledged. However, one of the drawbacks of this teaching approach is the transient nature of the notes. Students are reliant on the correctness of their copies for revisions,…

Biology has become a large and diversified science. Current biological research areas transgress academic and professional boundaries to such a degree that the biological sciences could arguably be referred to as "all encompassing." In this article, the author describes how he compiled information on currently recognised disciplines and…

This study explores students' attitudes to the provision of formative feedback on academic work using audio files together with the ways in which students implement such feedback within their learning. Fifteen students received audio file feedback on written work and were subsequently interviewed regarding their utilisation of that feedback within…

Web 2.0 tools are changing the way we work online. As lecturers, we need to understand how these emerging technologies impact both on our students' learning and on our own teaching practice. This means we must ourselves become more confident in our use of Web 2.0, to be able to cope with the rapidly changing nature of these technologies. In most…

There is currently much interest in ascribing outcomes to Masters (M) level programmes. It is particularly difficult to define M level outcomes in bioinformatics for students on non-specialist programmes. An approach is described that attempts to discriminate undergraduate from M level in a data-mining exercise. Differentiation of level is based…

A combination of factors including longer working hours, emphasis on professional development, and increased access to the Internet have fuelled the current high demand for distance learning options in tertiary biology. Distance learner students come from a heterogeneous pool of ages, backgrounds and abilities and they require choice in how they…

The effectiveness of lecture-integrated and web-supported case studies in supporting a large and academically diverse group of undergraduate students was evaluated in the present study. Case studies and resource (web)-based learning were incorporated as two complementary interactive learning strategies into the traditional curriculum. A truncated…

Podcasting (an automatic mechanism whereby multimedia computer files are transferred from a server to a client, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/podcast) is becoming increasingly popular in education. Although podcasts enable students and teachers to share information anywhere at anytime, the most frequent application of the technology to date has been to…

Most Virtual Learning Environments are designed to be simple to use by staff and students alike. We report a case study where this feature has led academic staff to reject formal centralised training and teach themselves how to use the system. What has resulted is widespread use of the system but with poor pedagogic development, leading primarily…

EMBER was a European project aiming to develop bioinformatics teaching materials on the Web and CD-ROM to help address the recognised skills shortage in bioinformatics. The project grew out of pilot work on the development of an interactive web-based bioinformatics tutorial and the desire to repackage that resource with the help of a professional…