DEVELOPMENT OF A WEB-BASED PLANT SCIENCE

TEACHING RESOURCE FOR USE BY UNIVERSITY

LECTURERS

The Gatsby Plants Teaching Resource

A. Levesley, S. J. Jopson and C. D. Knight

Centre for Plant Sciences, IICB, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK

Keywords: e-Learning, plant science, learning materials development, web-based teaching resource, teaching material.

Abstract: Undergraduate interest in plant science has reached a new critical low; with so few students taking plant-

based options that some Universities no longer do a separate Plant Science degree. This raises the question

“where is the next generation of British plant science researchers going to come from?”. The Gatsby Plants

Teaching Resource http://www.gatsbyplants.leeds.ac.uk/tr aims to support research academics to provide

stimulating and inspiring plant science teaching to reverse this downwards trend. The on-line resource will

supply a mix of novel teaching ideas, images and practical protocols, as well as holding a database of plant

science lecturer contacts so the lecturing community can work together to spread good teaching practice.

1 INTRODUCTION

Plants hold the key to many of the world’s problems,

such as food production; managing the environment

and climate; providing alternative renewable energy

sources and materials. But solutions need graduates

with a solid understanding of plant function,

diversity and potential. However, recent years have

seen a rapid decline in undergraduate student uptake

of plant based options, with a knock on effect of

reduced numbers choosing plant science for post

graduate studies and as a career. It is often the case

that students arrive at University with a perception

that ‘plants are boring’ and with a poor

understanding of the subject.

The Gatsby Charitable Foundation supports plant

research and, recognising this problem, has funded

Gatsby Plants – a 4 year National Teaching Facility

for Plant Sciences, coordinated by Dr. Celia Knight

at the University of Leeds.

Gatsby Plants aims to support academics to

provide stimulating and inspiring plant science

teaching to reverse this downwards trend and

enthuse students. One part of this initiative is the

Gatsby Plants Teaching Resource

(http://www.gatsbyplants.leeds.ac.uk/tr), which is

currently running as a pilot resource. It aims to

provide University lecturers with access to novel and

inspiring plant science teaching material developed

by experienced lecturers in the field.

In this paper we describe the approach we have

taken in the development of this teaching resource.

The link between research and teaching is core to

our approach, as is the support of a network of

University lecturers from 20 UK Universities who

have been key in identifying teaching requirements,

defining the user interface, providing direction and

will continue to be central to the development of the

teaching material. This resource has been developed

with the lecturer as the user, so that they may

download and use material from this resource for

their University teaching. As such it is described as

a Teaching Resource and the emphasis is to develop

inspiring teaching material rather than informative

material alone.

2 IDENTIFYING USER

REQUIREMENTS

2.1 Method

In order to establish the design and direction of the

resource we sought the views of the Plant Science

lecturing community through a user survey

433

Levesley A., J. Jopson S. and D. Knight C. (2007).

DEVELOPMENT OF A WEB-BASED PLANT SCIENCE TEACHING RESOURCE FOR USE BY UNIVERSITY LECTURERS - The Gatsby Plants

Teaching Resource.

In Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies - Society, e-Business and e-Government /

e-Learning, pages 433-439

DOI: 10.5220/0001282004330439

 SciTePress

consisting of a focus group meeting and a

questionnaire which was sent out to an established

network of university lecturers from 20 UK

Universities. The focus group meeting and

questionnaire were constructed to examine the

following key areas:

1. Lecturer use of on-line teaching material.

2. Priority content for the proposed resource

3. Priority features for the proposed resource

Questions took two forms: multiple choice or

open ended questions. The multiple choice questions

asked lecturers to rate resources/features as either

very useful, useful, fairly useful or not useful. Other

questions required lecturers to input their answers or

comments into text boxes.

2.2 Results

18 lectures from 12 UK Universities and research

institutions responded to the user survey, either

through the focus group or on-line questionnaire. A

scoring system was then applied to the ratings (very

useful=3; useful=2; fairly useful=1; not useful=0)

for analysis. The results are summarised below.

2.2.1 Lecturer Use of On-line Teaching

Material

67% of plant science lecturers use on-line material

to support their lectures. The most used types are

images, movies and on-line databases (e.g. DNA

sequence databases, protein interaction databases,

DNA analysis programmes).

0.0

5.0

10.0

15.0

20.0

25.0

vie

Ima

ges

base

Sel

comp

sed

Animatio

bora

ry we

sites

Figure 1: Types of on-line teaching material used by plant

science lecturers (n=18). On-line databases refers to DNA

sequence databases, protein interaction databases, DNA

analysis programmes; Self composed refers to learning

and revision packages created by the lecturer.

2.2.2 Establishing Priority Content for the

Proposed Resource

Lecturers were asked to suggest and rate the types of

resource which would best support their teaching.

The resources that were ranked highest were: high

quality images; animations to explain a concept,

short video clips (3 minutes or less) and practicals.

Figure 2: Lecturer resource preference. A high score

indicates a resource that was assessed as most useful in

supporting lecturer teaching.

Other favoured resources included:

• Links to reviewed quality web sites,

• subject specific information e.g. plant

physiology,

• facts and figures,

• current issues,

• research and text book images and

• case studies.

Resources which did not rank highly included

tutorials, Multiple Choice Questions, whole TV

programmes and materials which are pre-packaged

into ‘teaching packs’ for a particular key concept or

topic.

Analysis seems to show that lectures would

prefer to be given raw materials from which they

build their own custom made learning resources

rather than pre-packaged learning materials. This is

perhaps not surprising given that raw materials may

be incorporated into a module which may change

and evolve from year to year with relative ease.

Score

0 102030405060

High quality images

Animations to explain a concept

Video clips

Practicals

Links to reviewed websites

Subject specific information

Facts and figures

Current issues

Research images

Text-book diagrams

Case studies

Complex diagrams

Text from experts

MCQs

Teaching packs

Geographical maps

Tutorial s

Whole TV programmes

Current research techniques

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434

Further consultations with the plants science

community has highlighted the importance of having

all teaching material peer-reviewed for accuracy,

relevance and quality. This could be done through a

resource-review panel or subject consultants who

could comment on materials submitted to them and

identify priority content for a specific subject.

2.2.3 Establishing Priority Features for the

Proposed Resource

Lecturers were asked to rate potentially useful web

site features. The features that were rated highest

(with a majority of lecturers rating them as very

useful) were:

• that all teaching material should be free for

educational use,

• that the web site should facilitate browsing

as well as searching;

• and that the teaching material should be

developed by experts in the field.

Score

0 10203040

All material is free to use for

educational purposes

The website allows browsing

An easy to use search facility

Resources developed by

experts in their field

Upload facility for contributions

Feedback facility

Figure 3: Lecturer preference for web site features and

functions.

Given the high rating attributed to browsing for

teaching material, lecturers were asked to state how

they prefer to browse for teaching material.

Lecturers rated browsing by subject and by resource

type as their preferred browsing categories.

Score

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

Subject

Resource type

Contributors name

Species name

Special collection

Habitat type:

Geographical location

Figure 4: Lecturer preference for browse categories.

3 EVALUATION OF DIGITAL

OBJECT REPOSITORY

MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

Several options were available to us in developing

the digital object repository management system

(software system) required to facilitate delivery and

management of the Gatsby Plants Teaching

Material:

1. A bespoke ‘in-house’ system

2. Commercially available system

3. Freely available, open source system

A brief evaluation of commercially available and

open source software systems was carried out. The

evaluation was based on testing the ‘user side’ and

where possible accessing and testing the ‘admin

side’. A technical evaluation of most of the

evaluated open source software was assessed

through a report published by the Open Society

Institute: A Guide to Institutional Repository

Software,

http://www.soros.org/openaccess/pdf/OSI_Guide_to

_IR_Software_v3.pdf

Commercially available digital asset management

systems:

• Contentdm

• Digitool

• Symposia

• Endevour: encompass

Open Source digital asset management systems

• DSpace

• Fedora

• CDSware

• i-Tor

• MyCoRe

• OPUS

• Greenstore

While many of the software systems evaluated

mostly met our requirements, developing an in

house bespoke resource was the best option

available to us. Although open source software

would mostly meet our needs, considerable in-house

technical expertise would be required to install onto

a server and adapt to our requirements. No technical

support is offered other than that available through

discussion fora and BLOGS. Furthermore, many of

the additional features found in open access and

commercial systems were found to be unnecessary

for our purposes, as defined by our user

requirements. A bespoke system developed in-house

would have the added advantage of being adaptable

so that we would be at liberty to respond rapidly to

user requirements.

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4 THE GATSBY PLANTS

TEACHING RESOURCE

4.1 The System

The development of a bespoke digital object

repository management system was required to

facilitate delivery of the Gatsby Plants Teaching

Resource. Institutional support was a major

contribution to the decision to adopt PHP and

MySQL database for the necessary dynamic

database driven web site.

The system uses a MySQL 3.23 database with

PHP 4.3.1 web pages on a SUSE Linux v.8.2

operating system on an Apache 1.3 server. The

system consists of a user end and an administrator

side. The administrator side has been designed to

accommodate content upload, editing of content

metadata and deleting. The system accommodates

deliver of a variety of teaching media (jpegs, gif,

ppt, MPEG, streamed video (AVI), word documents,

url links) as well as a database of lecturer contact

details. The system is scalable and may be modified

to respond to user requirements.

4.2 The User Interface

The user survey informed the user interface design.

The ability to browse by subject, resource type and

contributor as well as to search the teaching material

was implemented.

Figure 6: Resource type specific icons are used to

facilitate navigation.

4.3 Teaching Materials Development

The user survey was essential in establishing priority

content to be delivered through the Gatsby Plants

Teaching Resource. The following have been

prioritised:

• High quality images

• Video clips and animations

• Practical class exercises

• Links to quality web sites

• Development of subject specific content

(Plant Physiology in the first instance)

4.3.1 High Quality Images

Targeted publishers and organisations have been

approached for high quality images. Research

images will be sought from the research community

Figure 5: Three screen shots of the Gatsby Plants

Teaching Resource. The user is able to search o

rowse the teaching material by subject, by resource

type or by contributor. Selecting a category takes the

user to a resource list page. Selecting a resource takes

the user to a detail page, from where viewing an

downloading the full resource is possible.

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436

and targeted research journals. The plant science

community will be consulted to identify key images.

4.3.2 Video Clips and Animations

In response to the user survey, which identified time

lapse photography of plants as useful content, we

have initially acquired 5 such clips and if further

need is established, will acquire more.

Further consultation with the plant science

lecturer community identified the use of short films

highlighting key research breakthroughs as potential

lecture hooks. We intend to trial the production of

such short films. The aim of this novel resource is to

produce a film of about 5 minutes for lecturers to

use in a number of different ways. The emphasis of

the film will be to inspire students rather than

informing them through the film alone.

4.3.3 Practical Class Exercises

A focus group of plant science lecturers was created

to look into the issues surrounding practical classes.

Tried and tested practical class exercises that

illustrate key concepts in contemporary plant science

were identified as a much needed resource.

Gathering such practicals has subsequently been

identified as key to the initial stages of developing

more subject-specific content.

4.3.4 Links to Quality Websites

An extensive, although not exhaustive, survey of

over 60 plant science related web sites has been

carried out. The best web sites have been included

as links from the Gatsby Plants Teaching Resource.

Additional evaluated links are included as necessary,

most come from recommendations by the plant

science community. Links will be reviewed on a

regular basis to ensure their continued relevance.

4.3.5 Development of Subject Specific

Content

The development of content within a specific subject

area will be piloted. A strategy has been put into

place where by an established and recognised

member of the plant science community will

champion a subject area, identify content and

encourage contributions from the plant science

community.

4.4 Copyright

Act now in force is the Copyright, Designs and

Patents Act 1988 (CDPA 1988). Often copyright is

transferred to publishers when an academic

publishes his or her research in a journal.

Furthermore, although the legal position is

inevitably complex, the law is such that, unless there

are specific agreements to the contrary, an

academic’s employer would normally be regarded as

owning all intellectual property generated by them

during the course of their employment, with some

exceptions (Leeds University Library, Copyright and

Licences http://www.leeds.ac.uk/library/rights/).

These two factors broadly mean that much of the

material we receive from academics requires rights

clearance not just from them as authors (since they

hold the moral rights on their materials) but often

from publishers or/and their employing institution

before it can be made freely available, through the

Gatsby Plants Teaching Resource, for educational

use. We have worked with the University of Leeds

lawyer to develop the appropriate procedures and

licenses to copyright clear all materials for

educational use.

4.5 Additional Features

4.5.1 Lecturers Database

A database of plant science lecturer contacts has

been established so that the lecturing community can

work together to spread good teaching practice. The

database includes over 150 plant science lecturers

who have agreed to be contactable to discuss

teaching and possibly share resources. The database

covers contact details, research interests and, where

provided, teaching interests. This database has

already been essential in providing feedback and

disseminating information on important learning and

teaching issues. An associated discussion forum

will be piloted and evaluated to assess whether it is

an effective means of facilitating discussions

amongst the plant science lecturing community and

so help spread good teaching practice.

4.5.2 Password Protection

The question of whether the website should be open

access or password protected was discussed as part

of the practical focus group. The decision was made

to password protect the site for three reasons: to

reassure contributors of resources that their material

DEVELOPMENT OF A WEB-BASED PLANT SCIENCE TEACHING RESOURCE FOR USE BY UNIVERSITY

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was only going to be accessible by legitimate

members of the plant science community, to protect

lecturers in the lecturers database (see section 4.5.1)

from unsolicited contacts and to allow the Teaching

Resource users to keep one step ahead of the

students they are teaching. New users are required to

supplied to genuine plant scientists working at

research institutes or Universities.

The issue of password protection will be

reviewed at the end of the pilot year to see if it has

had any affect on the user experience or facilitating

clearing copyright for access to novel teaching

resources.

4.5.3 Plant News and RSS

The user survey highlighted the importance of

providing information on plant science current

issues. In response to this we are developing a ‘Plant

News’ area to inform users on current developments

and breakthroughs in plant science as well as any

plants science being reported in the news.

Furthermore, as highlighted in by JISC the profile of

a resource may be raised by using RSS for

newsfeeds and alerting (JISC, 2005). RSS will be

used to disseminate ‘Plant news’ and also to inform

users about new content and so draw interested users

to the Gatsby Plants Teaching Resource web site and

maintain user interest.

4.5.4 Resource of the Week

Furthermore we will implement a ‘Resource of the

week’ area to highlight teaching material within the

Gatsby Plants Teaching Resource.

4.6 Evaluation

The Gatsby Plants Teaching Resource was launched

in September 2006 and is currently at the pilot stage.

The resource will undergo development and

evaluation over the next year.

User statistics will be used to gather access

information such as,

• visitor characteristics, e.g. regional

distributions and institutional affiliations,

• visitor technical profiles,

• visit characteristics, such as visit referral,

visitor browsing and searching preferences,

materials downloads.

Feedback will be generated both passively

through the website and actively through targeted

questionnaires and interviews with individual users.

This feedback will generate information on content

use by subject, visitor materials type preferences,

visitor scenarios of use, visitor satisfaction and

suggestions for improvement, visitor perceptions of

materials and visitor perceptions of impact.

5 CONCLUSIONS

A system to accommodate deliver of a variety of

teaching materials (jpeg, PowerPoint slides,

streamed video, downloadable video clips, word

documents, links) and a database of University

lecturers has been developed and will be undergoing

evaluation during this its pilot year. The system uses

a MySQL database with PHP web pages and

consists of a user end and an administrator side. The

administrator side has been designed to

accommodate content upload, editing of content

metadata and deleting. The system is scalable and

may be modified to respond to user requirements.

The user survey defined the design and user

interface of the Teaching Resource. Preliminary

feedback suggests the resource has been well

received. The continued feedback from the plant

science community will be essential in fine tuning

the technical requirements of the Teaching

Resource.

However, the technical side of the resource is not

the major challenge to the development of the

Gatsby Plants Teaching Resource. The greatest

challenge has proved to be delivering quality and

relevant content, which can only be achieved by

close collaboration with the plant science

community. Engaging the plant science community

and developing its sense of ownership of the

Teaching Resource will be key to the Resource’s

future.

The laborious nature of clearing copyright has,

unfortunately, resulted in a slow population of the

Teaching Resource by contributions. To overcome

this we are targeting collecting subject specific

content via a ‘Subject Champion’ and are trialling

having the website password protected as a way of

alleviating the worries of some contributors.

Once the Gatsby Plants Teaching Resource has

become established, there may be the potential to

expand the user base by extending the plant science

teaching content to schools level and maybe

providing learning resources directly to

undergraduate students.

We anticipate that through engagement with the

established network of plant science lecturers and

researchers, the Gatsby Plants Teaching Resource

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will grow to become a valuable teaching tool and

will assist plant science lecturers in their task of

inspiring future generations of plant scientists.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We would like to thank all those who have

generously supported this resource with contribution

of materials, time and ideas.

The work of Gatsby Plants is funded by the

Gatsby Charitable Foundation and supported by the

University of Leeds.

REFERENCES

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1988/Ukpga_198800

48_en_1.htm

JISC, 2005. Adding value with RSS. e-Resources Fact

File. Version 1.1.

Leeds University Library, Copyright and Licences

http://www.leeds.ac.uk/library/rights/

Open Society Institute, 2004. A Guide to Institutional

Repository Software. 3

Edition.

http://www.soros.org/openaccess/pdf/OSI_Guide_to_I

R_Software_v3.pdf

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