This presentation, delivered at the 3rd Cambridge Consortium on Bioethics Education in June 2013, looks at three ways multimedia are being used in teaching bioscience students about bioethics at the University of Leicester, UK. Visual media, primarily short clips, are used in teacher-led sessions. Secondly, students are required to produce their own short films. Thirdly, students write an analysis of a recent news story, which must be available as an online news clip.

1. Dr Chris Willmott
Dept of Biochemistry,
University of Leicester
cjrw2@le.ac.uk
Use of Multimedia in
Bioethics Education
3rd
Cambridge Consortium for Bioethics Education
University of
Leicester

2. Overview
• Multimedia (esp visual media) can be integrated into
teaching about bioethics in variety of ways
Use of
broadcast clips
Video
production
News
analysis

3. Context: Leicester
• University of Leicester
School of Biological Sciences
• Second Year Undergraduates
- Medical Biochemistry (n=40)
- Other Biologists (n= 180)

4. Context: UK Curriculum
• Quality Assurance Agency (QAA)
• Subject Benchmark Statements
• “Subject benchmark statements set out
expectations about standards of degrees in a range
of subject areas. They describe what gives a
discipline its coherence and identity, and define
what can be expected of a graduate in terms of the
abilities and skills needed to develop understanding
or competence in the subject.”
www.qaa.ac.uk

5. “Students should expect to be confronted by some
of the scientific, moral and ethical questions
raised by their study discipline, to consider
viewpoints other than their own, and to engage in
critical assessment and intellectual argument”
“Recognising the moral and ethical issues of
investigations and appreciating the need for
ethical standards and professional codes of
conduct”
QAA Benchmarking for Bioscience

6. All students should:
“Have some understanding of ethical issues and
the impact on society of advances in the
biosciences”
Good students should:
“Be able to construct reasoned arguments to
support their position on the ethical and social
impact of advances in the biosciences”
QAA Benchmarking for Bioscience

7. Clips in teaching
• There is huge pedagogic value in the use of
broadcast media
• Video (and audio) clips:
- familiar and engaging medium
- to help scene-setting
- to convey factual information
- as discussion starters
- clips more efficient than full programme

8. Clips for Scene-setting
South Park: “Kenny Dies”
(Paramount Comedy, 16th
January 2006)

9. Clips for Factual Content
A Child Against All Odds
(BBC1, 14th
November 2006)

10. Clips as Discussion Starters
Holby City: “Better The Devil You Know”
(BBC1, 6th
September 2006)

11. Holby City - xenotransplantation
• Pete has kidney failure and is being offered the last
opportunity of a transplant, using a kidney from a pig
• What ethical arguments might there be for/against
this operation?
• What scientific concerns might there be about an
operation of this sort?
• If you were Pete’s friend
would you suggest that he
accepts the doctor’s offer?
Why/why not?

12. Film production
• Some work producing our own films
What’s so controversial about
pharmacogenomics?
Model organisms in
biomedical research
Power of comparative
genomics

13. Film production
• Some work producing our own films
• Since 2008, require students to produce films
• Work in teams of 4 (set by me)
• Make 3-5 min video on allocated topic
• Best films are made available more broadly via
YouTube (linked from Bioethicsbytes)

14. Film production
• Concerns that “you cannot say
anything meaningful in 5 minutes”
not substantiated
• Rare opportunity within biology curriculum for
students to express creativity
• Genuine team activity rather than just “group work”
• Authentic Assessment – real-world relevance

15. Student films (1)
Forensic Uses of DNA
(2010, http://youtu.be/NLpwVpuLIac)

16. Student films (2)
Mitochondrial Diseases and 3-Parent IVF
(2013, http://youtu.be/7xJcKa6QrBc)

17. Student films (3)
Direct-to-Consumer Genetic Testing
(2013, http://youtu.be/26jb7m8mkLs)

18. Student films (4)
Ethical Issues in Public Health
(2011, http://youtu.be/r3a7qAZvAsU)

19. News analysis
• Research Skills module
• Second year (second semester), n = 180
• Students write 1000 word commentaries on current
news story that raises bioethical issues
• Max 200 words summarising content, rest focussed
on ethical arguments
• Appropriately referenced

20. News analysis
• Story must be from previous calendar year
(i.e. Jan 2012 to Dec 2012 for 2013 cohort)
• Story must be available as video clip on BBC
website (max 5 mins, not clip from longer
programme)
• Authentic Assessment/”Students as Producers”
• Best summaries made available as
resources for wider community

21. News analysis

22. Bioethicsbytes
• www.bioethicsbytes.wordpress.com
• Set up in 2006
• A hub for sharing multimedia resources for teaching
about bioethics
• Variety of formats

23. Bioethicsbytes
Suggested sections of
films & TV programmes

24. Bioethicsbytes
In depth reviews

25. Bioethicsbytes
Recommendation of
external resources

26. Bioethicsbytes
Book Reviews

27. Any Questions?
E-mail: cjrw2@le.ac.uk
Twitter: cjrw
Slideshare: cjrw2
Delicious: chriswillmott
Blogs: www.bioethicsbytes.wordpress.com
www.biosciencecareers.wordpress.com
www.lefthandedbiochemist.wordpress.com University of
Leicester