Understanding Bioinformatics: Direct Experience with Interactive Learning
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Project Overview
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Project Title |
Understanding Bioinformatics: Direct Experience with Interactive Learning |
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Project Leader |
Prof Xue Hong |
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School / Dept |
SSCI / BICH |
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Project Duration |
Jan 2004 - Jan 2005 |
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Project Description |
The field of Bioinformatics was advancing rapidly. Traditional teaching could not cater for the dynamic nature it now has. Besides studying books and other published materials, students needed an interactive environment to gain hands-on experience. They always had to use programmes with sophisticated algorithms and calculations. As some of them were unfamiliar with computers or mathematics, learning problems arise. This project aimed to help them overcome this obstacle and motivate them to learn. Modifications or add-ins were made to free software. Study aids were also designed to help students learn the programmes after class by themselves. These aids taught not only programme functions, but alsohow it could be applied to actual research. The work wasdone in modules according to various topics. |
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Project Outcome |
As stated in the original proposal, we have made some modifications and add-in to some computer programs that perform various bioinformatics tasks. The operation of the original programs are usually in command line and difficult to use, which scared many of the student with less computer knowledge. We therefore made the graphical user interface which is more user-friendly and also easier for teaching. In addition, we also created some step-by-step study aids, which are pretty much welcomed by the students. These study aids mimic that someone is using the program on the screen and guide the students through different tasks. Different features of the programs can therefore clearly been shown. A forum was also created originally, but the rate of using is very low. Students seemed to prefer asking question in person or by email rather than by discussion board, so we have finally abandoned it. We also gathered many available resources on the web, for example the databases, computer programs sources, multimedia about basic biological knowledge etc. All the above mentioned outcomes and deliverables are put in our homepage. This homepage can therefore be the bioinformatics portal for the students. Students can find many materials about bioinformatics in this homepage, whenever they think of it. |
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Status |
Completed |
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Project Documents |
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Adaptation |
Full Project |
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