The document summarizes a study where students took part in an activity to create websites on bioethical topics. It describes the context, aims, training provided, topics covered, assessment, and evaluation of the activity through pre- and post-questionnaires. The evaluation found improvements in students' knowledge and interest in bioethics, and ability to create websites. However, the activity was later retired due to reduced relevance of web authoring and potential for plagiarism.

1. Pedagogic Research in the Biosciences 2009 Reflections on the paper: Teaching about bioethics through authoring of websites Dr Chris Willmott Dept of Biochemistry University of Leicester [email_address] THE University of the Year 2008 University of Leicester

2. The Paper Journal of Biological Education 39 :27-31 (2004) University of Leicester

14. Feedback on training “ I have never tried anything like this before and I could actually do it, which I didn’t expect!” “ I’d always thought that designing a web page would be a very difficult thing, but the step-by-step instructions made the hole (sic) thing very painless and easy to understand. The lecture last week was a great introduction to web-design, so that coming to this practical. I had some idea what I was doing. Thanks very much A*” “ This was a very useful exercise because I had no idea before where to start if I wanted to design a web page, but it is something that I wanted to be able to do.” University of Leicester

15. Evaluation by participants Questionnaire-based survey before and after activity in 2002 and 2003 (n = 69, score out of 10) Ability to produce a website (after) = 7.1 out of 10 Only 11 out of 72 had any prior experience Category Before After Change Knowledge about Bioethics 2.53 6.61 + 4.08 Interest in Bioethics 5.80 6.84 + 1.04 Interest in Web authoring 6.13 6.51 + 0.38

16. Bioethics issues listed by students * % of cohort citing topic (only topics mentioned by > 50% on at least one occasion are included) Topic 2002 Before 2002 After 2003 Before 2003 After Xenotransplantation 25.7* 44.1 10.8 92.1 Cloning 77.1 50.0 89.2 29.0 Animal expts/testing 48.6 85.3 37.8 73.7 Use of human tissue/organs 5.7 44.1 2.7 73.7 Gene patenting 0 35.3 0 68.4 Genetic screening 14.3 67.7 2.7 29.0 Gene therapy 5.7 61.8 5.4 55.3

17. Topics identified in first place 2002 (before) 2003 (before) Cloning (16) Animal experiments (4) Gen engin./modfictn (3) Xenotransplantation (3) Cloning (19) Animal experiments (5) Euthanasia (3) 2002 (after) 2003 (after) Gene therapy (7) Animal experiments (5) Xenotransplantation (4) Genetic screening (5) Gene patenting (3) Xenotransplantation (13) Use of stem cells (5) Gene therapy (4) Gene patenting (3)