Project - VIBE Education Edition

Project Summary

1. Project Design

Throughout the project, INCOGEN collaborated closely with a team of professionals from the College of William & Mary (W&M) and other institutions to develop an effective plan for assessment and design of the educational software and its introduction into the classroom. This team was comprised of bioinformatics educators from the Departments of Biology, Physics, and Applied Science; the Dean of and a professor in the Department of Education; the Director of Assessment, the Director of Academic Information Services, and an independent educational consultant. 

The contributions of the team members were gathered through large meetings involving the entire team and more frequent and focused meetings involving specific subsets of the team. First, based on feedback from bioinformatics educators, we defined the role that an educational software product would play in the bioinformatics classroom setting. Second, the scope of the software was discussed to ensure a pedagogically sound environment that encourages deep learning for the students. Education professionals and faculty contributed their expertise to determine the level of instruction needed in a teaching tool, especially in the specialized context of bioinformatics classes at universities and at community colleges and high schools. Third, we examined the importance of assessment in developing tools for learning, and developed methods for assessing the software and evaluating student learning.