Designing a Graphic and Interactive Web Platform to Promote the Effective Learning of Radiation Biophysics

Abstract

Background: Radiation biophysics (PHY4274) is a multidisciplinary course teaching the effects of radiations on human body. This course is of great practical importance considering the applications in cancer therapy, radiation safety, etc. The multidisciplinary nature of this course causes some difficulties for students with background of either physics or biology. The students with physics background are often unfamiliar with biological processes involved in radiation biophysics, while the students with biology background may be confused of physics terms about radiations. Approach: To overcome the difficulties caused by the multidisciplinary nature of this course, this project aims to design a graphic and interactive web platform to help students quickly grasp the basic biology and physics knowledge needed in radiation biophysics. The webpage platform will employ graphics to illustrate the essential physical, chemical and biological terms and processes needed in understanding radiation biophysics. Graphics can deliver the scientific knowledge more efficiently than pure words, although designing graphic costs more effort than writing texts. In addition to making still images, animations will be designed to illustrate dynamic processes. Furthermore, interactive features will be included in the webpage platform to encourage students' active thinking rather than simply presenting results. Expected Outcome: After grasping the knowledge encoded in the platform, students are expected to have no difficult to understand the course of radiation biophysics, regardless of their backgrounds.