The Virtual Cell: A Role-Based Virtual Environment for Learning Cell Biology Alan R. White Phillip E. McClean Brian M. Slator Lisa Daniels Jeff Terpstra North Dakota State University Fargo, ND

World Wide Web Instructional Committee NDSU WWWIC World Wide Web Instructional Committee Paul Juell Donald Schwert Phillip McClean Brian Slator Bernhardt Saini-Eidukat Alan White Jeff Clark Lisa Daniels Jeff Terpstra WWWIC faculty supported by large teams of undergraduate and graduate students. WWWIC’s virtual worlds research supported by: NSF grants DUE-9752548, EAR-9809761, DUE- 9981094, ITR-0086142 and EPSCoR 99-77788; US Dept of Educ. FIPSE P116B000734, FIPSE P116B011528; FIPSE P116B030120

Educational Role-playing Games “Learning-by-doing” Experiences MultiUser Exploration Spatially-oriented virtual worlds Practical planning and decision making

Educational Role-playing Games “Learning-by-doing” Experiences Problem solving Scientific method Real-world content Mature thinking

Advantages of Virtual Worlds Collapse virtual time and distance Allow physical or practical impossibilities Participate from anywhere Interact with other users, virtual artifacts, and software agents Multi-user collaborations and competitive play

Technical Approaches Networked, internet-based, client-server MultiPlayer Simulation-based Implemented in Java applets

Technical Approaches MUD = Multi User Domain MOO = Object Oriented MUD Multi-user database for implementing objects and methods to represent rooms, containers and agents

Technical Approaches MUDs and MOOs are typically task-oriented with keyboard interactions Ours are also graphically-oriented, point & click interfaces

The Virtual Cell The Geology Explorer The Projects Dollar Bay Like-a-Fishhook Village Digital Archive for Archaeology Blackwood – Old West Town

The Virtual Cell User Interface

The Virtual Cell Rendered in VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language)

You are a biologist who can “fly around” inside the cell.

Users are assigned specific goals For example: Identify 5 different organelles

A Virtual Laboratory is attached

The Cell User movements are tracked by MOO software.

Users set up experiments in the Cell to accomplish their assigned goals.

The Virtual Cell User Interface

The Virtual Cell: Assessment Protocol Text-Based Virtual Cell Pre-course Assessment: 400+ students Computer Literacy Assessment: Divide by Computer Literacy and Biology Lab Experience Text-Based Control Group: (150 students, approx.) Virtual Cell Treatment Group: (125 students) Web-Based Alternative Group: (125 students) Post-course Assessment: 400 students

Mean Post-Intervention Scenario Scores Module: Group No. Organelle ID Cellular Resp. Text 145 17.4a 10.6a Web 94 19.7b 13.7b VCell 93 22.7c 17.3c Within any column, any two means followed by the same letter are not significantly different at P=0.05 using the LSD mean separation test.

What we have found: Virtual Cell is currently a supplement to Introductory Biology lectures. It has the potential to replace certain sections of a course. It can also be used in laboratory settings. Virtual Cell does provide an authentic experience.

Cell Biology Animations Visualization in 3D aids learning Animations are effective visualization tools for novice learners Animations enhance long-term memory retention Animations reveal the complexity of dynamic processes

Virtual Cell Animations http://vcell.ndsu.edu/animations

Virtual Cell Animations First Look

Virtual Cell Animations Advanced Look

Virtual Cell Animations Transcription Translation Bacterial gene expression (Lac Operon) Protein import to organelle Cellular respiration Biological gradients & ATP synthesis RNA processing mRNA splicing

Virtual Cell Animations Translation Animation

Virtual Cell Animations Classroom Experiment Education 321 – Introduction to Teaching Diverse class of pre-service teachers Pre-Test Multiple Choice Protein Synthesis Treatment Lectures and individual study about protein synthesis Post-Test Multiple Choice Protein Synthesis

Virtual Cell Animations Classroom Experiment Treatments: A (n=14) Animation Lecture Individual Study of Animation B (n=14) Individual Study of Text Animation Lecture C (n=15) Overheads Lecture D (n=12) Individual Study of Text Overheads Lecture

Virtual Cell Animations Group PostTest Mean Difference A Animation Lecture Individual Animation 3.54 2.54 B Individual Text Animation Lecture 2.73 1.50 C Overheads Lecture 2.50 1.20 D Individual Text Overheads Lecture 2.07 1.67

Virtual Cell Animations Comparison P Value Means Comparison Difference A vs B 0.0442* 0.0237* A vs C 0.0150* 0.0036* A vs D 0.0004* 0.0046* B vs C 0.5612 0.4881 B vs D 0.0823 0.4669 C vs D 0.2824 0.9409

Virtual Cell Animations Conclusions Animation used both during lecture and individual study significantly improves content retention.

Acknowledgements Graphic Artists Christina Johnson, Roxanne Rogers, Rob Brantseg, Kellie Martindale, Mark Rose Aaron Bergstrom Programming Brad Vender, Mei Li, Jacob Halvorson, Daniel Small, Kellie Erickson, Ganesh Padmanabhan, John Opgrande Education Brian Meier, Jill Hockemeyer, Richard Danielson Kim Addicott, John Reber

To visit WWWIC Projects: vcell.ndsu.edu wwwic.ndsu.edu Supported by: National Science US Dept of Educ. Foundation FIPSE

Outcomes:. Cell Biology Content. Learning-by-Doing. Problem Solving Outcomes: Cell Biology Content Learning-by-Doing Problem Solving Hypothesis Formation Deductive Reasoning Mature Thinking

Virtual Cell Animations Classroom Experiment - Results

Works in Progress Photosystem II