The introductory course for Biology students at Napier University
is "Life on Earth" - 45 lectures that introduce students
to fundamental concepts in evolution and ecology. As part of my
requirements for my Postgraduate Degree in Teaching and Learning
from Napier University, I created these three online lessons based
upon the first three lectures of "Life on Earth". It
took me a huge amount of time and I do not plan to extend this
website to include the other 42 lessons! Regardless, these three
lessons introduced the student to scientific thinking and provide
a foundation for understanding evolution.
There is no getting around the fact that writing flexible
learning materials is (in effect) writing a book! It takes a great
deal of time and has all the problems of any book-based project
(researching the materials, writing, proof-reading, editing, etc.).
I decided to break each lesson into many small bits
and link them together. This allowed me to take advantage of one
of the internet's simplest features - hyperlinks! I concluded
each page with a question or suggestion that encourages the student
to think about what s/he has just read. I believe these simple
breaks in the reading allow for a period of reflection. Without
these questions students might plough through the materials (just
to get to the end) without understanding it.
Many of my questions require that the student choose, by clicking
with the mouse, from possible answers. Regardless of which answer
the student chooses, s/he will advance to the next page and find
the correct answer along with any explanation.
There are two "activities" in my project - "find
your blind spot" (illustrating the "errors" that
natural selection makes) and "hunt the moths" (illustrating
how the variety of individuals in a population affects selection
pressures on them).
- The blind spot activity is used in many textbooks and lab manuals.
Moving it to the web was easy but I had to write slightly different
instructions for my students. Books tell the student to move the
image (book) to make the cross disappear but that would be equivalent
to asking the student to push the computer monitor around! Instead
I suggest the student slide his/her chair back and forth while
maintaining a gaze on the diagram. After some testing I found
that this is much easier to do than the "book method"!
Holding steady a book at arm's length while concentrating on the
image can be an effort.
- The hunt simulation cannot be done in book form. I developed
this activity from a "lecture demonstration" I used
to do with students (using an overhead projector and removing
the image after a certain amount of time had elapsed). This transferred
very well to the computer. The moment that the student is presented
with the image, to begin the hunt, a timer is started that redirects
the student to the "answer" after 15 seconds. This limits
the time that the student has to conduct the hunt.
With few exceptions, flexible learning requires a great deal of
reading by the student. If the student is a poor reader or does
not enjoy reading (often the same thing) s/he is not likely to
enjoy most forms of flexible learning. Granted, there are flexible
learning audiotapes (especially those for the blind) and videotapes
but these are rarely used in practice and, in my opinion, are
even more likely to encourage the student to accept learning in
a passive mode. Presenting the material on webpages requires that
the student be able to read well and also has the distinct disadvantage
that s/he cannot "mark up" the text as it is read. However,
I have tried to discourage the student from printing out these
webpages for two reasons.
- The background colour will use a lot of ink! A white background
would save ink but, studies have shown that staring at black letters
on a white screen increases eyestrain and contributes to fatigue.
(The emitted light of a monitor causes much more contrast and
irritation that the reflected light from a piece of paper.) On
the other hand, studies have shown that a green-blue, light-blue
or light-green background with black letters provides the best
combination for reading from a monitor.
- Printing via a web browser can be full of surprises! Sometimes
the right edge is missing. Sometimes page breaks occur every paragraph.
These problems are difficult to solve and usually require specific
knowledge about the printer, browser and drivers in order to solve
it.
I encourage the student to follow along through the lessons
while jotting down information. By encouraging this note-taking
I hope to get the student more involved with the learning and,
because the student advances (or even "retreats") through
the lessons at his/her own pace, many of the problems encountered
in note taking during a lecture are avoided.
I hope you enjoy this "hypertextbook" but please respect
the fact that it is copyright protected © 2000.
I (Dr Jamie Love) 
created all the text and images in this website.