Teaching and Learning Technology Resource

| uwa | csd | altmodes: modes - tools - examples |

DESCRIPTION OF INNOVATION:

Environmental Physiology - part of the Animal Stack, a computer simulated animal dissection program

Facilitating Independent Student Learning through a Computer Simulated Animal Dissection. The simulation has been structured in a non-linear approach that allows students to use a virtual 'scalpel blade' to dissect a simulated animal. Once students dissect the animal to the level of the organs they can choose a special 'finger' tool that allows them to connect the structure to the functions of specific organs. The students then can explore a series of cards that explain the physiology and structure of these organs. Related topics can be explored by clicking on a bar at the bottom of each card and if students are 'lost' there is a map for orientation.

REASONS FOR DEVELOPMENT/INTRODUCTION OF THE INNOVATION:

Second year Agriculture students learn the anatomy and physiology of animals. These subjects can be learned only by understanding the relationship between the structure of organs and their function. However, students experience difficulties in learning animal anatomy and physiology from formal lectures as in lectures they cannot observe organs and tissues directly to achieve a deep understanding of the relationship between form and function.

Students could achieve a deeper understanding of the structure and function of animals if they could dissect animals as they study the theory. This could never be achieved with real animals because animal dissections are costly and cannot be conducted during independent study. Also some students cannot undertake animal dissections for moral or religious reasons.

TEACHING/LEARNING AIMS:

A major objective in second year Agriculture is for students to learn the structure and function of animals. Graduates in Agriculture need to have a thorough understanding of the anatomy and physiology of animals in order to apply appropriate management strategies that will ensure the welfare and therefore the productivity of domestic animals. Anatomy and physiology can be learned only by understanding the relationship between the structure of organs and their function. For instance, it is only by understanding what the heart of an animal has to do, that it becomes obvious why it is structured the way it is.

To address these problems we have developed Animal Stack, an interactive computer simulation that allows students to learn the structure and function of animals independently, by interacting with simulated animals. Animal Stack explores specifically the link between structure and function because it is only by understanding the link between them that students can achieve a deep understanding of anatomy and physiology.

DESIGN PRINCIPLES:

'Animal Stack' differs from other computer simulated dissections because it explores specifically the link between structure and function. We are convinced that only by understanding the link between anatomy and physiology it is possible to learn both of them. Other commercially available packages deal with either anatomy or physiology without linking the two.

'Animal Stack' has been structured in a non-linear approach that we believe will give students freedom and stimulate curiosity to explore the animal's body. Starting from a picture of the whole animal, the user can 'dissect' it into several layers with the use of special tools such as 'scalpel blade' and 'cross-sections'. Students can also use other tools such as 'organs nomenclature', 'rotations', 'real dissection photographs'. With these tools students are able to reproduce procedures similar to those used in dissection classes. The great advantage here is that students are allowed to go back and retrace their steps, in contrast with real dissections where often students make mistakes that ruin the specimen, and they cannot start again.

Once students dissect the animal to the level of the organs they can choose a special 'finger' tool that allows them to connect the structure to the functions of specific organs when clicked with the mouse. Students then go through a sequence of cards that demonstrate the physiology, micro anatomy and relation to anatomy of that organ with coloured pictures, animation and text. Links to related topics are also available at this level. Returning to the anatomy level students then continue to explore the body of the animal.

'Animal stack' was developed on Macintosh computers with the programme HyperCard. HyperCard has features which allow students to control their learning strategy such as the possibility to create maps for orientation and the use of buttons and fields to build an intuitive user interface. With HyperCard it is also possible to produce animations and include Quick Time movies which are particularly useful to demonstrate the relationship between the structure and function of organs.

USE:

Animal stack is in use by second year students for practical classes and independent study. Students feedback was that our computer simulation is an excellent study tool as it helps them to understand important concepts by encouraging them to think about how animals function.

Animal Stack has the potential to solve some of the difficulties related to animal dissections in tertiary institutions. We do not propose to replace dissections completely, but to give students the opportunity to turn up at dissection classes with a better understanding of the structure and functions of animals.

STUDENT SUPPORT:

Animal stack' was developed on Macintosh computers as they are easy to use and students can interact with the simulation with little supervision as well as use it for private study. We have used the programme HyperCard which proved to be an ideal shell to create our simulation. HyperCard has features which allow students to control the learning strategy such as the facility to create maps for orientation and the use of buttons and fields to build an intuitive user interface. In the past, the lack of such features has been identified as a major problem in computer assisted learning (Laurillard 1988).

ASSESSMENT:

As the project evolved and the students became involved, the need to implement some form of assessment became clear. While students enjoyed interacting with the Animal Stack, they told us that it should include assessment. In their own words, 'If something is not assessed students do not take much interest'. The introduction of self assessment modules integrated into the Animal Stack will  further encourage our students to learn the relationship between the structure and function of animals. Thanks to further funding from UWA, we are currently introducing these self-assessment modules into Animal Stack.

EVALUATION:

The project was monitored by our students as well as the Project Reference Group. Small groups of students were actively involved in the development phase of the project to trial our simulation and give us feedback.

A substantial amount of time during the students trials was devoted to pure observation on how they interacted with the program. Monitoring how students were using the simulation was critical for the project's success. These observations lead to changes in the design of the Animal Stack and have contributed to make it more user friendly and to achieving the proposed educational objectives.

In later stages we introduced Animal Stack into our practical classes. We surveyed these students with an independent SPOT (Student Perception Of Teaching) assessment along with ad-hoc questionnaires.

EFFECTIVENESS:

The feedback from the students shows that Animal Stack has achieved the objective of this project, that is to facilitate independent student  learning. Results from a recent survey of 27 students who interacted with Animal Stack showed that 81% of them agreed that the Stack helped them to understand the link between structure and function of animals and that it prepared them for the main dissection, so that they knew what they were going to find inside a sheep.

78% of the students also agreed that the Animal Stack helped them to understand how animals function. However, when asked if they believed the simulation could be used to replace completely the use of animals 92% of them disagreed or strongly disagreed. This suggests that Animal Stack is an excellent learning tool for independent study and for preparing for dissections, but it probably cannot replace the hands-on experience of doing a real dissection.

HINDRANCES TO DEVELOPING INNOVATION:

As a delivery platform, the Macintosh choice has posed some disadvantages: our Faculty's computer lab is based on IBM-PC compatibles and so alternative locations had to be found to run the practical classes. Later this year, Apple will release a new version of HyperCard that will enable us to "translate" the Animal Stack to a QuickTime movie file type, which can then be easily run on the IBM-PC compatibles.

HyperCard has provided us with a stable and powerful environment, but we have felt the lack of embedded colour capabilities in this version of the program (2.2). This problem was solved using external commands (XCMD).

ENABLERS TO DEVELOPING INNOVATION:

The choice of the HyperCard software and Apple Macintosh as a development platform proved to be very successful. The new skills and techniques required for the development of our simulation were very quickly learned and applied. As this platform is extremely user-friendly it has allowed all of the lecturers from our group to have an input in the simulation without a need to become expert computer programmers.

'Animal stack' was developed on Macintosh computers as they are easy to use and students can interact with the simulation with little supervision as well as use it for private study.

COST/BENEFITS:

$ 37.448 for salaries, on costs, software and visual aids

|top of page|

visitors since 20/6/97

Hierarchical menu script available from <http://www.dhtmlab.com/>