Interactive Movie: A Tool to Deepen Student Learning about Quality and Regulatory Affairs in Biotechnology

This project is developing and producing a Web-based interactive movie to teach students about quality and regulatory affairs as they impact biotechnology companies. The interactive movie is modeled after "The Lab: Avoiding Research Misconduct", an innovative and compelling training production developed by the U.S. Office of Research Integrity (ORI). In the proposed Bio-Link/Pellet interactive movie, students select the role of one of several characters in a biotechnology company. The student experiences the culture of a biotechnology company and the work of their character, and then is presented with situations and decisions involving specific quality and regulatory affairs issues. Depending on the student's decisions, differing scenarios are enacted in the movie. This allows the student to experience both a particular job role in a biotechnology workplace and also the impact and/or consequences of their decisions in that role. To enhance the value of the videos for teaching purposes, the series includes a facilitator's guide with suggestions for discussion, assessment, classroom activities, and other supports. The proposed project is improving student learning by providing a contextual learning experience modeled after the workplace environment of a biotechnology company. The goal of the interactive movie is to augment the learner's understanding of what it means to achieve quality in a biotechnology company setting, thus bridging theory and concepts to the real world of work. The interactive movie has the potential to engage and transform students by enabling them to safely experience the consequences of their decisions. The movie scripts are being developed with assistance from technical experts in the biotechnology industry to ensure authenticity of the workplace setting, scenarios, characters, work roles, and quality and regulatory affairs issues. The facilitator's guide includes assessment tools to help evaluate and enhance student learning. The interactive movie is being broadly disseminated through links on multiple websites and available at no cost to the ATE community, colleges, universities, and K-12 educators across the country. The interactive scenarios is helping bridge the learning gap between classroom lecture (theory) and real workplace situations (practice) and helps students be better prepared to succeed and advance in the field of biotechnology. The movie has the potential to reach a wide national audience of educators and workforce development trainers, as there will be no limit to the number of participants accessing the materials. Bio-Link is providing workshops, webinars, and training videos as well as disseminating a facilitator's guide to support instructors and encourage the use of the interactive movie by educators at all levels. The production involves a diverse cast including people of different ages and ethnicities and both men and women so as to provide role models for all students.