Sabbatical Report for Steven Berg
Biology Department
September 2007
This document is intended to serve as my required sabbatical leave report for my 2006-2007 academic year sabbatical leave as required by Article 19 Section C Subdivision 3. Although this written document is brief, it provides hyperlinks to web based manifestations of the actual work that was done. The amount of work done during the sabbatical leave can be best appreciated by viewing the hyperlinks. To make it easy to access the hyperlinks, a copy of this report with active hyperlinks can be found online at: http://199.17.130.29/berg/sabbatical/Report2007.htm
My sabbatical leave activities can be placed into one of two major groups. First, I studied three programming languages (Flash, ActionScript and Java) in an effort to increase my ability to develop web deliverable animations that illustrate important biological processes and concepts. To this end, I read and studied several textbooks including:
Mohler,
James L., (2004) Flash MX 2004: Graphics,
Animations & Interactivity. Thompson/Delmar
Learning,
Lott, Joey; Schall, Darron & Peters, Keith; (2007) ActionScript 3.0 Cookbook. O’Reilly Media Inc.
Moock, Colin (2004) Essential ActionScript 2.0: Object-Oriented Development with ActionScript 2.0. O’Reilly Media Inc.
Besley, Kristian; Bhangal, Sham; Powers, David (2006) ActionScript for Flash 8. Friends of Ed: Designer to Designer: an Apress company.
Peters, Keith (2006) ActionScript Animation: Making Things Move! Friends of Ed: Designer to Designer: an Apress company.
In addition to my independent studies above, I also sat in on Paul Schumacher’s CS 234 class for most of spring semester 2007. In this course I participated (lectures, labs, homework) as a normally enrolled student except that I did not take the formal exams. The textbook that was used was:
Wu, C. Thomas (2006) An Introduction to
Object-Oriented Programming with Java, 4th Edition. McGraw Hill,
As a result of these independent and directed studies I did improve my ability to develop meaningful animations that can be delivered over the web. Some examples of my sabbatical produced animations are posted on the web and can be see at:
http://199.17.130.29/berg/ANIMTNS/FlashAnimations/Diffusion/membraneDiffusion2.swf
http://199.17.130.29/berg/ANIMTNS/FlashAnimations/Diffusion/randomDiffusion2.swf
http://199.17.130.29/berg/ANIMTNS/FlashAnimations/SDSgel/sdsGelReallyAdvanced.swf
http://199.17.130.29/berg/ANIMTNS/FlashAnimations/nonDenaturingGels/nonDenaturingGel.swf
These animations are significantly more sophisticated and some are far more interactive than the old style gif animations that I have created in the past.
I have already placed hyperlinks to these animations into my online courses where appropriate and I expect that they will be used by students to increase their understanding of the principles illustrated.
The second major activity of my sabbatical leave was to produce 100’s of web deliverable “minilectures”. These 1 to 3 minute online minilectures are accessible by hyperlinks directly from my online lecture outlines. The purpose of the minilectures is give students 24/7 access to my explanations of the more difficult aspects of my courses. I hope that students will access these minilectures as questions arise and further clarification is needed. The minilectures were produced using a software product called MacroMedia Captivate. I chose to make the minilectures available in swf format for web delivery. The minilectures can be updated and changed very easily so that errors can be corrected and further elaborations can be added. The minilectures produced during my sabbatical can be found embedded in the online lecture outlines found in the right hand box of the table at:
http://199.17.130.29/berg/241f07/Lec-note/Lectures.htm
Interested parties should scroll down until a movie icon becomes visible on the right hand side. Passing the mouse over the icon reveals the topic of the minilectures. Clicking on the icon starts the minilecture. You will need your sound turned on so that you can hear the sound track of the minilectures.
I have not counted the actual number of these minilectures, but they represent a very substantial time expenditure. Whereas they run for only 1 to 3 minutes, it takes significantly longer to edit and polish the minilectures to bring them to condition take is acceptable for online publication. I estimate that on average each minilecture takes about 30 to 40 minutes to produce. Some of the more elaborate minilectures took much longer to produce and edit.
I am currently using the minilectures in my Biology 241 class. Rather than lecturing as I have done in the past, I am trying to use the scheduled lecture hours for in class discussions, questions and other interactive activities related to assigned lecture outlines. Students will be expected to access information in the online outlines with embedded minilectures and then to bring their questions and comments to class for explanation and elaboration. Success or lack of success in this endeavor will be gauged by a suitable measure of student learning.