COMPUTER-BASED LEARNING IN A UNIVERSITY ZOOLOGY COURSE

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Abstract

The Biology Department of the University of Nijmegen (Netherlands) has been facing many of the problems encountered by other university faculties in these economically depressed times: cutbacks in government funding, demands for curriculum revisions, increased teacher workloads, shortage of assistantships. Because of the desire to maintain high standards of research and the well known preference of most scientists to perform research rather than teaching, the quality of instruction for students may suffer. University Zoology Departments must also respond to an increasing number of students who express “moral” objections against experiments with animals and others questioning the usefulness of such experimentation in the early phase of their study. Nevertheless the university must still provide fully equipped (and costly) laboratories for student usage.

Given this range of problems and constraints it is not surprising that eventually some introduction of mediated, self-study, or automated forms of instruction come under consideration. This article will describe a project which attempts to remedy a number of the above mentioned problems in teaching a second year Zoology course (Animal Physiology), and more specifically the problems surrounding an animal experiment contained therein, through the use of videotape and computer-assisted instruction.