Suchergebnisse

Biological information, both new and old, is increasingly available in thousands of on-line sites. Biological information relates to elements as small as subatomic particles, and as large as the entire biosphere, and to processes that last from less than a femtosecond to many billions of years. Our economy, supply of food and materials, our health, and individual and collective well-being are set within the context of our natural world. Our world is under pressure from the demands of a growing population. Biologists need new ways to access, organize and analyze biological information to make new styles of research possible to better predict the nature of future change and to inform decisions makers. TDWG has promoted standardization that facilitates communication, but there is no overall architecture that interconnects the digital resources to better serve a wider community. The research funding paradigm leads to imaginative but competitive and short-lived enterprises. The Unifying Biology Through Informatics (UBTI) programme will explore the challenges that have to be overcome to add a cyberinfrastructure agenda to the current research agenda. An emerging infrastructure will require technical improvements inclusive of agreed metadata and ontologies to improve, extend and integrate the informatics tools, processes and skills to manage digital information across the full spectrum of biological phenomena. The new tools must penetrate deep into a large number of small information sources. It will require co-operation of existing enterprises, a target of service not discovery, institutional support to guarantee long term funding of the emerging infrastructure, and a considerable financial investment. 'Unifying Biology Through Informatics' will articulate, in increasing detail, the nature of an indexing infrastructure capable of evolving in response to the needs of producers and users of data; the hosting, funding and sustainability of the infrastructure, and the political and social changes needed to secure the ...

Biological information, both new and old, is increasingly available in thousands of on-line sites. Biological information relates to elements as small as subatomic particles, and as large as the entire biosphere, and to processes that last from less than a femtosecond to many billions of years. Our economy, supply of food and materials, our health, and individual and collective well-being are set within the context of our natural world. Our world is under pressure from the demands of a growing population. Biologists need new ways to access, organize and analyze biological information to make new styles of research possible to better predict the nature of future change and to inform decisions makers. TDWG has promoted standardization that facilitates communication, but there is no overall architecture that interconnects the digital resources to better serve a wider community. The research funding paradigm leads to imaginative but competitive and short-lived enterprises. The Unifying Biology Through Informatics (UBTI) programme will explore the challenges that have to be overcome to add a cyberinfrastructure agenda to the current research agenda. An emerging infrastructure will require technical improvements inclusive of agreed metadata and ontologies to improve, extend and integrate the informatics tools, processes and skills to manage digital information across the full spectrum of biological phenomena. The new tools must penetrate deep into a large number of small information sources. It will require co-operation of existing enterprises, a target of service not discovery, institutional support to guarantee long term funding of the emerging infrastructure, and a considerable financial investment. 'Unifying Biology Through Informatics' will articulate, in increasing detail, the nature of an indexing infrastructure capable of evolving in response to the needs of producers and users of data; the hosting, funding and sustainability of the infrastructure, and the political and social changes needed to secure the adoption, longevity, and use of the infrastructure. The programme welcomes input on selected use-cases that can be used to identify the most pressing challenges and opportunities.

AbstractThe COVID-19 pandemic caused a rapid seismic shift to online delivery in otherwise face-to-face higher education settings worldwide. This quantitative research study sought to investigate the effect of different delivery styles and assessment types on student outcomes. Specifically, grades achieved by first year undergraduate Biological Science students at a UK Higher Education institution were compared from seven modules across two different academic years, namely 2018–2019 and 2020–2021. The academic year 2018–2019 was delivered in the traditional face-to-face manner whereas the 2020–2021 method of delivery was via blended learning. The results showed that four of the seven modules were negatively affected by the transition from face-to-face to blended delivery (p < 0.05, T-test). One module was unaffected (p > 0.05, T-test) and the remaining two modules were positively affected (p < 0.05, T-test). However, the percentage of students requiring reassessments increased with blended learning delivery although this was not significant (p < 0.05, T-test). In summary, the majority of individual module marks decreased with blended learning compared to face-to-face delivery, with an associated increase in required reassessments. Although there are positive benefits to incorporating an element of online learning for students, it is important to utilise this information in future module delivery planning to support the varying student cohorts of the future.