Modern multimedia tools taking the form of computer generated graphics, animations, movies, etc., provide educators at all levels with the means to convey information to wide audiences with immediacy and clarity. Animated visuals have been found to engage audiences more readily than traditional presentation approaches such as ‘chalk and talk’, and they convey complex or unvisualisable phenomena with much more impact than would otherwise be possible.

The CCRC is delighted to announce that on June 10th Dr. Mark Tangney, a Principal Investigator at Cork Cancer Research Centre, and Dr. Sabin Tabirca, Department of Computer Science UCC, received the President’s Award for Research on Innovative Forms of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education for their work on ‘Computer Animations In The Real And Virtual Classroom’. This award will fund their proposal to assess the use of purpose-built hi-tech computer generated animations which will make such teaching more tangible to the student, thereby improving the speed and quality of learning compared with traditional methods, e.g. picture depictions or text.

The CCRC is particularly excited about this work as large components of teaching in the life sciences involve natural, ‘invisible’ phenomena. In such teaching, lecturers are traditionally left with little option but to verbally communicate concepts utilising static pictures (if available) as visual aids. In this concept, by providing tailor-made, sophisticated animations that precisely meet the needs of the educator, concepts related to cancer research, treatment or the mechanisms of cancer spread etc., will be made tangible for the audience. We will be able to aid in the understanding of this disease and the research and treatments that aim to combat them.