Slides from a presentation at the Improving Experimental Approaches In Animal Biology: Implementing the 3Rs (London, 1st July 2016), sponsored by the Society for Experimental Biology. I discussed four ways that I've used multimedia in bioethics education. #SEB3Rs.

1. Multimedia in Bioethics Education
Improving Experimental Approaches In Animal
Biology: Implementing the 3Rs
Dr Chris Willmott
Dept of Molecular
and Cell Biology
University of Leicester
cjrw2@le.ac.uk

2. Overview
• Context: geographical and disciplinary
• Multimedia in teaching
• Two assessed activities
• Examples of student films
• Some advice on running similar tasks
• A cautionary tale

3. Context: Leicester
• University of Leicester
School of Biological Sciences
• Second Year Undergraduates
- Medical Biochemistry (n=40)
- Other Biologists (n=180)
- All Biologists (n=300)

4. “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

5. 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

6. • Multimedia (esp visual media) can be integrated into
teaching about bioethics in variety of ways
Use of broadcast clips
Video production
News analysis
Multimedia in Bioethics Education
Flipped lectures

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

13. News analysis
• Story must be from previous calendar year
(i.e. Jan 2013 to Dec 2013 for 2014 cohort)
• Story must be available as video clip on BBC website
(max 5 mins, not clip from longer programme)
• Best summaries made available as resources for
wider community
• Authentic Assessment

14. News analysis

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

16. Film production
Model Organisms in Biomedical Research (Abridged)
(2011, https://youtu.be/Jj5QlYlE66w)

17. Film production
• 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)

18. 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

19. Authentic Assessment
• Characteristics of authenticity include:
• Real-world relevance
• Meaningful
• Challenging
• Involve students in own research
• Knowledge construction
• Opportunity for “ownership”
• Generates product or performance
“Students as Producers”
• Collaboration/Teamwork

20. Genetic
enhancement
Topics
include
Bioethics
and Sport
Brain imaging
Egg donation
3-parent IVF
Gene
therapy
Transhumanism
Use of animals
in research
Xenotransplantation
Organ trading
Forensic
use of DNA
Cognitive
enhancement
Use of human
material
Pharmacogenetics
Ethical issues in
public health
Medical tourism
Genome editing
Resource allocation
Dual-use dilemma
Incidental findings
Vaccination
against HPV
Face transplant

21. Student films: Genre
Interviews
24hr News

22. Student films: Genre
Role-play

23. Student films: Genre
Animation

24. Student films: Genre
Finger puppets
VideoScribe

25. • Digital video:
- Excellent way to boost engagement
- Develops transferable skills
- Produces resource for wider community
• Recommended equipment:
- HD quality cameras recording to SD card
- Tripods and external microphones
• Decide if you will accept submissions made using
GoAnimate or Videoscribe
• Don’t use their own names in role-play
• Award appropriate credit – this is not an easy task
If you wish to run this activity...

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

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

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

29. Student films (4)
Ethics of Animal Testing
(2009)

30. Evolution of Yr2 Bioethics
A cautionary tale A work in progress

31. Evolution of Yr2 Bioethics
• BS2060 Research Skills (2004-2014)
- 7 lectures (introduction + 6 themed)
- Assessment (from 2009) “Headline Bioethics”
25% of module mark
- consistently most popular section in module
(“stimulated interest” 4.32 out of 5 in 2011-12)
• BS2000 Research Topic (2014)
- 4 lectures (introduction + 3 instrumentalist)
- Case studies in tutorial (2 hrs)
- Assessment “Research Proposal”
5% of 60% of module (= 3%)

32. Feedback 2014 (a)
• n= 279
• total of 12 out of 116 comments mentioned ethics
• Lectures:
- “I felt that the ethics lectures were the only
valuable lectures in the module”
- “The bioethics lectures were generally relevant
and were interesting”
- “The bioethics lectures were highly interesting”
- “The lectures regarding bioethics and experimental
design were both useful and interesting, I feel
though they could be cut down…”

33. Feedback 2014 (b)
• Tutorials: 7 comments were negative about tutorial
time being given over to ethics case studies, e.g.
- “we had to waste time answering questions meant
that we had less time as a group to do the
accessed (sic) work”
- “timetabled group sessions are lost with exams/
ethical scenario exercises”
- “…this wasted time that could have been devoted
to our actual research project”
- “…these small tasks added greater time pressure on
completing the main aim of the Research module”

34. Redesign 2015
• Some students unhappy with group discussion time
being “wasted” on bioethics scenarios
• Some staff uncomfortable with ethics teaching
• Decision to pre-record lectures and release online
- free up tutorial slots
- move case studies to “lecture slot”
• Introductory lecture retained
• Other lectures (working with humans, animals and
GMOs) delivered as short online videos via Bboard
• Case studies in lectures 2&3
(4th lecture dropped)

35. Flipped lectures
• Broke lectures into more bite-sized chunks
• Panopto used to record lectures
• Made available via Blackboard

36. Flipped lectures

37. Feedback 2015 (a)
• n = 311
• questionnaire format STOP – START – CONTINUE
• total of 23 comments re ethics
• Lectures:
- “I found the ethics lectures very interesting”
- “Ethics lectures really helped when writing the
research proposal”
- “[Continue] bioethics lectures as they are really
interesting and can be useful in the future”
- “The case study lectures were really interesting”

38. Feedback 2015 (b)
• Lectures:
- “Ethics lectures still seemed rather pointless as
they did not (and could not really) relate to our
particular topic”
- “They were interesting but as they didn’t count
they were not a priority”
- “Less time spent on ethics didn’t reflect marks for
it on project”
- “The bioethics lectures could be cut shorter”
- “Sort out the bioethics lectures properly”

39. Feedback 2015 (c)
• Tutorials, etc:
-“[Start] doing bioethics in the tutorial groups”
- “[Start] having tutorial sessions where you put
some of what you learn in lectures into practice,
for example, ethical committees”
- “Maybe introduce an ethics exam”
- “The extra information for the ethics was very well
coordinated”
- “[Stop] having so many lectures/powerpoints on
just ethics of human clinical trials”

40. Lecture Flipping: Conclusions
• Panopto is excellent tool for preparing flipped
lectures
• But… pre-recording lectures is time consuming
(the first time through) – planning script, recording,
re-recording and editing
• You can’t please everyone all of the time
• Assessment “carrot” still main driver of student
engagement

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

42. References
Conway R et al (1993) Peer assessment of an individual’s
contribution to a group project Assessment and Evaluation in
Higher Education 18:45-56
Frey BB et al (2012) Defining authentic classroom assessment Practical
Assessment, Research & Evaluation 17 ISSN 1531-7714
Swaffield S (2011) Getting to the heart of authentic Assessment for Learning
Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy and Practice 18:433-449
Willmott C (2013) Headline Bioethics: Engagement with bioethics in the news
Bioscience Education 21:3-6
Willmott C (2014) Boxing clever: television as a teaching tool Times Higher
Education (28th August 2014)
Willmott CJR (2015) Teaching bioethics via the production of student-
generated videos Journal of Biological Education 49:127-138