Spreadsheet for monitoring student progress

Dr. Gary Kuleck from Loyola Marymount University has devised an Excel based spread sheet system. These spreadsheets are created by the student based on their particular project. The sheet is designed to easily note both the overall progress students are making as well as how much progress is being made on each isoform. This progress tracker worksheet acts as an example of how the students should set up their progress sheets (each sheet will be different as the number or isoforms and exons changes). Color are used in the upper section to indicate overal status of the project and colors are used in the lower section to indicate progress of each isoform on an exon by exons basis.

Using Wiki to facilitate group work

Dr. Anya Goodman at Calpoly worked with 20 students on annotation and used a course wiki to keep track of thier progress and help students manage their project in small groups. Students worked in groups of 3-4 and each group annotated two contigs. They used the free wiki site Wetpaint to set up the course page. (Please contact Dr. Goodman for credentials required to access the course website.)

Dr. Goodman used the course page to keep track of all the contigs, genes, and progress for the class. Each group made a link to their group page, where they posted weekly goals for each member, coordinates of annotated genes, and questions. Students were able to check and comment on each other's work. Discussion threads at the bottom of each page made it easy to answer student questions. The wiki was easy to use (just like editing a word document!).