LIFE • 7
the telescope pctv
PCTV creates award-winning video series for biology class David Krueger The telescope
PCTV production crew on location in Santa Barbara/Courtesy of PCTV
A scene from Lesley Williams’ interview/Courtesy of PCTV
Taking online classes can be somewhat of a drag, not to mention it takes superhuman focus to stay self-motivated throughout the semester. To keep things interesting, Palomar College Television (PCTV) and the Biology Department have developed an award-winning informative videos series designed to shake up the online curriculum. Biology Professor Lesley Williams and PCTV spearheaded the project for Williams’ online life science classes. Those classes include Bio 135: Biology of Marine Mammals and Zoology 135, which even non-biology majors can take. The new video series is based on a documentary produced by PCTV titled, “Threatened: The Controversial Struggle Of The Southern Sea Otter.” Williams said she feels that utilizing videos in her curriculum creates a more realistic and engaging online classroom session. Compared to most online classes, which are oftentimes difficult for students to fully grasp the material, Williams has found that videos convey information more effectively than just pen and paper. Her objective is to not only help students easily understand the material, but more importantly, to help them become better citizens in terms of protecting the ocean and conserving it. Williams added that it’s not just about understanding specific biological principles, but more so rec-
Film Cover • Courtesy of PCTV
ognizing that solutions to problems are usually not singular, they’re multi-faceted and everyone can play a role in being a good citizen. Since the documentary was implemented into her courses, both student performance and attendance have increased significantly. Her classes have received a great deal of positive feedback from current students. Wendy Rose, 40, a biology student at Palomar, wrote in an e-mail; “I love the video lectures of my online Biology of Marine Mammals. They are informative, thought-provoking and sometimes heart-wrenching to watch. All of which has had a dramatically positive impact upon my learning experience.” Outside of the classroom, the documentary itself has received both national and international recognition. The film recently received five Emmy nominations from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences as well as a nomination for “Best Documentary” at the Fallbrook Film Festival and was
also featured at the Julian Film Festival in San Diego. The film touches on a number of sensitive topics, which include land-based pollution threats, starvation, oil spills, and the commercial shellfish industry. Over the course of a year and a half in which the documentary was researched, produced and edited, Bill Wisneski, who produced the film, said; “The biggest challenge was how to tie it all together.” PCTV received a grant for $8,000 from the Palomar Foundation (a non-profit organization) to help fund the project along with three other documentaries that PCTV is working on. Both Williams and Wisneski are hopeful the video series they created will serve Palomar students for the next 20 years because of the long-term problems that sea otters will continue to face. The documentary is available to the public free of charge at http:// www.palomar.edu/pctv/otter_ doc.shtml. dkrueger@the-telescope.com