Scientific progress depends on scientific norms. Before beginning an experiment, a researcher will study the literature to determine what has been done and will often seek out collaborators with skills he or she lacks. The research is carried out according to accepted standards, submitted to peer review, revised accordingly and finally published openly where anyone in the world can benefit from it for free.   

Too often, however, these canons are disregarded when developing materials for teaching. The Harvey Project is an attempt to correct this. It is a collaborative of researchers, teachers, students, programmers, and designers from around the world building simulations, animations, 3-D models, and other forms of rich content for teaching physiology. The Project has created a searchable database of ~700 of the most useful Websites for teaching physiology. It is adopting or creating standards for the accuracy, pedagogy, and technology of online materials. It is creating a system of constructive peer review and use testing for materials under development. And any material it creates is free to use, copy, distribute or modify, as long as proper credit is given its creators and any improvement is re-released and re-reviewed under the same terms.  

The Harvey Project (http://harveyproject.org) has over 100 members in 17 countries. It has approximately 40 learning objects currently under development. Besides inviting faculty to contribute to its development efforts, it aims to empower them to use rich content in their courses. To this end it has developed several tools for integrating Web-based materials into a practical course.  This poster describes the Harvey Project and the rich content, standards and tools it has developed. It also considers the suitability of this "open course" approach for other disciplines. Supported by NSF DUE-9951384.

This poster describes the Harvey Project, its philosophy and the resources it offers. It explains what an open course collaboration is and how this model could be useful to disciplines beyond physiology. It describes the sort of learning objects developed by the Project, its directory of physiology teaching sites, and the tools it has developed

Robert Stephenson
1430 Jackson St.
San Francisco, CA 94109
Phone: 415 921-1245
Email: rstephe@sun.science.wayne.edu
Website: http://sun.science.wayne.edu/~rstephe/

CO-AUTHORS:
Marija Franetovic (1)
Pamela Gregory (2)
(1)
College of Nursing, Cohn Bldg.
Wayne State Univ.
Detroit, MI 48202

(2)
Dept. of Biology
Tyler Junior Coll., Tyler, TX 75701
Phone: (1) 313 577-4779

(2) 903 510-2839
Email: (1) ah2271@wayne.edu
(2) pgre@tjc.tyler.cc.tx.us
Website: (1) http://bernard.biosci.wayne.edu/marija/