Project Number 11 – 1994

Application of “Knowledge Management” Concepts
to the Interdisciplinary Area of Biotechnology

Project Number 11 – 1994

Abstract

Project Summary

This project will allow for the application of “knowledge management” concepts to the identification of published and electronic resources in biotechnology, provide access to researchers and students via the Internet through the development of navigation tools and instructional programs, and help faculty integrate these tools into the teaching of selected materials, concepts or procedures following a “problem-solving” curriculum model which lends itself to direct use of electronic information resources by students. This project will serve as a prototype for the library’s role in the application of “knowledge management” concepts to a “problem-solving” instruction model in biotechnology.

Overall Mission

To integrate components of knowledge management into usable prototypes for biotechnology, within a problem-solving pedagogic/teaching model.

Project Components and related Objectives

Infrastructure Component:

1. Expand the local capabilities of the on-line public access catalogs of the campus libraries.
2. Enhance the Internet access to biotechnology resources.
3. Support standards development (i.e. Z39.50)Directory of Resources Component:
4. Expand the biotechnology resources available on the Internet.
5. Develop standardized descriptions and record formats for biotechnology resources on the Internet. 

Navigation Tools Component:

6a) Provide faculty and students with simplified means of searching biotechnology resources on the Internet.

Instructional Component:

6b) Improve skills of faculty and students in the effective use of the Internet.

6c) Develop instructional materials which integrate information resources using the Internet as part of a problem-solving curriculum model.

Project Criteria

In an effort to rely less on lecture and memorization as the major method of teaching, medical and veterinary schools have been moving toward a “problem-solving” curriculum approach in which students utilize interactive computer-based systems to define problems and choose alternatives. The four partnering institutions in the project encourage their faculty to apply the problem-solving approach to the teaching of science and medicine. Project participants also hope to apply this problem-solving methodology on a broader basis. Their colleges and libraries are moving toward the integration of literature citations, database descriptions, full text, and graphics into the curriculum models. Some of the project efforts which relate to interests of the Coalition are as follows:

University of Minnesota
Preliminary work has begun on “The Advanced Recombinant DNA Textbook”, an electronic textbook. This textbook is X-Mosaic based; it is designed to teach current methods in molecular biology to graduate students. This “didactic platform: is interactive and will be available via a variety of access methods.

University of Wisconsin-Madison
The campus project team members have developed and conducted many Internet seminars, classes and training sessions. A series of handouts entitled “Internet Resources for Biologists” was also developed at UW-Madison and serve as subject-specific guides to the Internet. Work is underway in creating advanced guides and other instructional materials for specific areas of biotechnology.

Indiana University
The IU project team continues to explore ways in which the tools developed can be incorporated into the library and biochemistry instruction efforts. As part of this effort, faculty and librarians are developing ways in which these efforts can be evaluated. To date, Internet instruction has been included in two undergraduate and one graduate course.

Iowa State University
Instructional materials developed by Veterinary School faculty are being placed on a WWW server to test its utility in the instructional environment. It is hoped that these lectures and supporting illustrations will be of interest to instructors at other institutions participating in the project and that some joint development may take place before the conclusion of the project.

Audio-visual requirements

Internet Connection (including power and telephone lines)
LCD Projection System