The Virginia Community College System's Commonwealth Course for General Biology

Repository Of Biology Learning Objects For Instructors

Authors

Content Experts Joressia Beyer, John Tyler Community College –

Midlothian, VA Allen Costa, Tidewater Community College – Norfolk,

VA Juville Dario-Becker, Central Virginia Community

College – Lynchburg, VA Barbara Stewart, J. Sargeant Reynolds Community

College – Richmond, VA Instructional Design

Sharon Martin, J. Sergeant Reynolds Community College – Richmond, VA

A Brief History Of The Commonwealth Course Started as the VCCS Courseware Project in

1998 The original purpose was to design and implement

a general biology transfer course that was suitable for asynchronous delivery over the web

The project was never really promoted or used by the faculty of the VCCS

In addition, this course was not modular and could not be modified and easily used by the instructor.

In 2003, the VCCS realized something more was needed - A Commonwealth Course for general biology was proposed.

The Commonwealth Course: A Definition Learning experiences that are

developed and designed to be delivered to students wherever they are;

Contains the content, resources, technologies, delivery options, learning activities, academic support and services to assure student access and student success.

The Commonwealth Course: A Definition They are modular, re-usable,

collaboratively developed, cross disciplinary and highly visible models of excellence in online instruction in the Virginia Community College System.

They can be adopted by any faculty for their own use.

Why Design a Repository

World class VCCS wants to set the standard for distance

learning courses. Quality

Assure that the resources are present to allow the faculty to teach the course and the student to succeed in the course.

Teams made up of people with different expertise can design a rich environment.

Peer review will assure it becomes the benchmark for distance learning courses in the VCCS.

Why Design a Repository:continued Economies of scale

Faculty at each VCCS college cannot afford to build every course multiple times over.

We are attempting to do it once with a lot of input from various experts and provide a rich array of (reviewed) resources associated with the course.

Why Design a Repository: continued Multi-purpose

A repository allows for cross – disciplinary use of learning objects – e.g., a learning object from Biology can be used in Math, English or Humanities.

Faculty see the potential benefits of sharing learning objects across disciplines.

Repository Organization: analogous to textbook

General Biology Text

VCCS Biology Commonwealth Course

Units

ChaptersChapters Competencies Competencies

Modules

Assessment

References

Assessment

References

What the Repository Provides

A standardized set of learning objects Review Objectives (Learning outcomes) Content

A brief overview of the topic Designed to supplement a textbook or other material. Assessment components engage students and

reinforce understanding of material. Advantages

Students benefit by always knowing the basic design is the same. Little or no learning curve.

Designed to be used in any electronic course management system.

What the Repository Provides continued Links to learning objects designed by other

people Webliography of links for further

reinforcement of topic. Laboratory exercises

Designed for multiple delivery options Easily adaptable for what the instructor needs

A place for all VCCS biology faculty to come together as a community and share what they have designed.

The Guiding Influence of Merlot

Review of modules Using the review process developed by Merlot Developed our own peer review forms based

upon the MERLOT evaluation criteria and rating scale

Modules rated by Quality of content Effectiveness as a teaching and learning tool Ease of use Each review criterion is rated by no stars, 3, 4,

and 5 stars

The Guiding Influence of Merlot continued Design of repository

Similar to organization of learning objects in Merlot Learning objects grouped by topic Learning objects designed to be modular and easy to

pick and choose what you want to use in your class. Differences in organization compared to Merlot

Organization of repository is specific for subjects commonly taught in a two semester general biology course.

Design team decided to produce one learning object in a standardized format for each topic to be covered.

Picture This

Organization of Repository ITDE Commonwealth Course Site

Standardized Learning Objectives History of Genetics Mendels

Laws Segregation and Independent Assortment Predict offspring genotype and phenotype ratios Variations on Mendel

Labs Genetic Patterns and Human Genetics Lab Mendelian Genetics

Webliography/Supplemental Links

What the Future Holds

We hope to establish a state level collection of the best of what we do

Have all VCCS faculty both use the repository and contribute to the repository

Overcome fears that the Commonwealth Course will dictate what is taught in a class – remove academic freedom

Ensure that learning objects are reusable