42 BIOCHEMICAL EDUCATION July 1975 Vol. 3 No. 3

THE USE OF AUDIO-TUTORIAL TEACHING METHODS IN A POSTGRADUATE REFRESHER COURSE ON MEMBRANES AND MITOCHONDRIA

P. B. GARLAND D e p a r t m e n t of Biochemis t ry Med ica l Sciences Ins t i tu te Univers i ty of D u n d e e D u n d e e DD1 HN, Sco t l and

The successful use of audio-tutorial teaching (Postlethwalt et al., 1971) in the medical biochemistry course provided by this department has already been described (Chignell & Macqueen, 1974). More recently we have extended this approach to an introductory b~ochemistry course for science students and to a further more advanced term of medical biochemistry. The favourable reception of such methods by both students and staff encouraged us to turn to audio-tutorial methods to assist in solving some of the particular problems posed in organising a short (3-day) refresher course for postgraduate and postdoctoral workers. The course, sponsored by The Biochemical Society, was held at Dundee in April 1975, was titled "Membranes and Mitochondria", and attracted 31 participants whose academic interests and backgrounds were very varied. Three visiting lecturers provided outside expertise for lectures and .leadership of discussions, and complemented resources available through the host department. However, the problem remained as to how we might provide the participants with a critical and up-to-date account of some of the experimental methods that are currently proving effective in the study of membranes and mitochondria. Clearly a set of lectures would have been inappropriate; there is a (low) limit to the number of lectures an audience can usefully listen to in a day, and the varied background of the participants would have rendered the lectures possibly as meaningless to some participants as they were boring to others. We therefore decided to provide a choice of self-learning audio-tutorial units in addition to two or three daily lectures and evening discussions. The lectures aimed to describe general trends and philosophy of specific fields (mitochondrial biogenesis, characterisation of membrane proteins, reconstitution of membranes and solute transport in bacteria). The evening discussions dealt with chosen conflicting publications in selected fields. The titles of the learning audio-tutorial units are listed in the Table. It was intended that each unit could be taken and completed in two hours: in practice conscientious completion of all the problem-solving and data-handling exercises would ideally have required rather more than two hours, and further requirements for time could have come from related reading and performance of experiments. Units were mainly in the form of stencilled notes and figures, reprints or extracts of publications, and a tape with instructions and commentary. The author of each unit was available in the audio-tutorial laboratory for consultation on problems set or arising in the tape and notes, and on associated demonstration or experimental material. The notes for each unit had clearly specified aims, objectives and self-assessment questions. Participants chose their units in advance of their arrival at Dundee, and this greatly assisted the running of the course. Change of choice during the course was possible and taken up by some participants.

It was clear from informal contact throughout the course that the audio-tutorial units were enthusiastically received by the great majority of participants. Completion of a questionnaire by all but two of the participants at the end of the course showed that the audio-tutorial units were rated for academic enjoyment as very much above average by 86°7o of the participants, and above average by the remainder. Comparable figures for the lectures were 41% very much above average, 48% above average, and 11% average. For the evening discussions the

figures (in the same order) were 17%, 49% and 34% respectively. Of three units that received particularly favourable comment, one provided a tape with notes, another provided a tape with notes and slides, and a third used a non-removable file of figures and diagrams rather than slides to accompany the tape and notes.

Author Title

J. M. Haslam t The isolation of yeast mutants affected in mito- chondrial function 4.

R. K. Poole 2 Membrane synthesis as studied during the cell cycle 4.

C. I. Ragan 3 The reconstitution of oxidative phosphorylation.

D. A. Chignell Resolution and reconstitution of membranes.

R. Booth Lipids in membranes.

D. H. Boxer Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulphate 4, s.

D. A. Chignell The structure and function of bacteriorhodopsin 4.

R. A. Clegg The solution of a complex problem - - membrane protein purification 4.

M. T. Davison Electron microscopy of membranes and mito- chondria 4.

P. B. Garland Wavelength scanning spectroscopy of respiratory chains ~, s.

P. B. Garland Dual wavelength spectroscopy of respiratory chains 4, s.

P .B . Garland Stopped-flow spectrophotometry of respiratory chains 4, s.

B.A. Haddock Isolation of bacterial mutants of membrane l function.

B. A. Haddock Potentiometrie redox titrations of respiratory carriers 4.

B. A. Haddock Estimates of P /O (or P/2e-) ratios in bacterial cells 4.

J. C. Kernohan Instrumentation for fluorescence studies of mem- branes 4.

D. G. Nieholls Parameters of mitochondrial energisation.

D. G. Nicholls The transport of ions and metabolites across the inner mitochondrial membrane.

D. G. Nichoils Methods for determining ~H+/ 2e - ratios and protonmotive forceL

Table o f Audio-Tutorial Units

In addition, demonstrations of a chemostat (B. A. Haddock) and an analogue-computer model for continuous culture (J. C. Kernohan) were available.

Notes: 1, from Liverpool University; 2, from Queen Elizabeth College, London; 3, from Southampton University; 4, includes demonstration material; 5, includes experimental work.

BIOCHEMICAL EDUCATION July 1975 Vol. 3 No. 3 43

The physical preparation of the tapes and notes for the units with any associated slides, demonstrations or experiments was begun in earnest four to five weeks before the course began. The author for each unit was expert in the subject of that unit, but about a half of the authors had no previous experience of preparing self-learning audio-tutorial material. Consistency of presentation between authors was achieved by circulating a simple set of guidelines and a model tape and note unit. The unit chosen as a model was one that illustrated the interplay between tape, notes, a reprint and a demonstration, and had been designed for a medical course by my colleague Dr. G. J. Dutton.

Although it is premature to draw firm conclusions from our limited experience with this one short course, the indications are firstly that audio-tutorial self-learning methods in a suitable context of other teaching methods are received no less favourably than discussion groups and lectures from the same group of teachers; secondly that conceptually advanced topics can be taught by the audio-tutorial approach; and thirdly that teachers and research workers with experience in a subject but none in audio-tutorial methods can, with some little guidance, produce successful and acceptable self-learning material with no more effort than that needed for the preparation of more conventional teaching materials. If these indications turn out to be generally valid for large parts of Honours level teaching of biochemistry, then their implications for University teachers are considerable, irrespective of whether the teacher's interest is to improve his teaching, to protect his research time, or to do both.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am indebted to my colleagues and friends who taught on the

course, to Dr. G. J. Dutton for the stimulus and example of a model unit, to Mrs. Susan Bremner and Mrs. Jytte Thompson for preparing the notes of numerous units in a few weeks, to Dr. Doreen Macqueen for the smooth running of the audio- tutorial laboratory, to Mr. R. Stewart of the Audio-Visual Aids Department for expert tape recording and copying services, to the course participants for their stamina, response and constructive suggestions, and to Dr. A. T. Macqueen for the course assessment questionnaire.

REFERENCES Postlethwait, S. N., Novak, J. & Murray, H. T. (1971). The

Audio-Tutorial Approach to Learning Through Independent Study and Integrated Experiences. Burgers Publishing Co.

Chiguell, D. A. & Macqueen, D. (1974). "Flexible Learning Methods in a Pre-Clinical Biochemistry Course - - an Interim Report". Biochemical Education 2, 43-44.

FILM REVIEW I

Glycogen Metabolism in Man An Animated Film on Glycogen Metabolism

Dr. Wilfred N. Arnold, author and producer . Running t ime 20min. Colour and sound. Available as 16ram film or in a Super -Smm Casette. F o r i n f o r m a t i o n , write to Dr. Wilfred Arnold, University of Kansas Medical Center, Biochemistry Dept . , Kansas City, Kansas 66103, U.S.A.

Our department had the pleasure of seeing this film and in having Dr. Arnold explain the methods used in its production. The audience was our faculty, graduate students and a few medical students. I believe all enjoyed it immensely, but I will speak only for myself and one adverse critic. His comment was "It's not right or proper to show a film with dancing in it as a part of a formal course."

To me Dr. Arnold is to be complimented on not only producing a film which is particularly useful for teaching medical and graduate students but, also, for providing an artistic creation which can be enjoyed by almost anyone.

The animation shows a glycogen molecule growing from white balls (glucose units) to the branched molecule with the help of enzymes. Purists could say that it doesn't show the coiled chains or everything that is known about the process. The film is not intended to cover the entire subject but does condense most of what is required of a medical student into a form that is entertaining and, in my opinion, will enable a student to integrate and remember the various processes. It should be used in the middle or end of a lecture.

The animation is broken at intervals for brief lectures by the author, Haworth formulas showing a, 1--~4 and a, 1~6 linkages, and names of the enzymes involved.

The sequence is also broken by using second-year medical students (who had completed the course) as glucose units and ballet dancers as enzymes. I didn't know that enzymes were so beautiful! Professor Sherbon of the Lawrence Campus was the choreographer and supplied the "enzymes". As a ballet-buff, I liked this part and felt that it reinforced the animation. The background music was composed and played by Kelvin McCusker, a medical student. The combination of animation, ballet and music created a feeling of action, of energetic processes, of living.

Dr. Arnold had no real technical help in the production. It has a few technical flaws of which he is aware. The "metabolism in man" part consists of his reciting a list of glycogen storage diseases and symptoms. Of course, it could also be the ballet part, but I'm afraid that some women's-lib students might object and want it changed to "metabolism in persons", even though persons has a male suffix!

I congratulate Dr. Arnold on his production, courage, and artistic flair. He has not fallen into the trap of allowing entertainment to supplant the educational purpose. I hope that other lecturers will find this film an inspiration to try unorthodox methods. Science and art need not be separated. Teaching, doing research and the practice of medicine are all arts.

W. Pigman Department of Biochemistry New York Medical College N.Y. 10029, U.S.A.