Open Resources for Biology Education (ORBE): a resource collection.

In undergraduate life sciences education, open educational resources (OERs) increase accessibility and retention for students, reduce costs, and save instructors time and effort. Despite increasing awareness and utilization of these resources, OERs are not centrally located, and many undergraduate instructors describe challenges in locating relevant materials for use in their classes. To address this challenge, we have designed a resource collection (referred to as Open Resources for Biology Education, ORBE) with 89 unique resources that are primarily relevant to undergraduate life sciences education. To identify the resources in ORBE, we asked undergraduate life sciences instructors to list what OERs they use in their teaching and curated their responses. Here, we summarize the contents of the ORBE and describe how educators can use this resource as a tool to identify suitable materials to use in their classroom context. By highlighting the breadth of unique resources openly available for undergraduate biology education, we intend for the ORBE to increase instructors' awareness and use of OERs.

[Transformation of scientific research results into teaching resources to improve the teaching effect: taking the teaching of the chromatographic method in the pharmaceutical analysis course as an example].

The pharmaceutical analysis course is a three-dimensional knowledge network that connects several courses to form a new comprehensive knowledge node involving a large knowledge system and flexible knowledge structure. In this course, the subject of chromatography covers a wide range of topics. However, because accurate content is challenging to present, the teaching effect of this subject is poor. In this work, we sought to achieve the educational purpose of establishing morality and cultivating talent, as well as the goal of training highly skilled professionals, by taking the teaching of chromatography in the pharmaceutical analysis course as an example of transforming scientific research results into teaching resources. The resources obtained are integrated into the teaching process to provide innovative and scientific research ideas to students with the aim of not only helping them understand and master technical knowledge but also exercise their ability to raise and solve problems. Furthermore, we expound on how to introduce scientific development frontiers and formulate scientific problems through curriculum design. We also describe how our strategy can promote the teaching effect and achieve teaching objectives. Based on the characteristics of rapid knowledge update and equal emphasis on theory and practice in pharmaceutical analysis, the course is designed by introducing new advances in scientific development, formulating scientific problems, and adopting question- and problem-based learning methods for teaching. The teaching effect is then evaluated through diversified assessment, student feedback, and self-evaluation. The results show that the transformation of scientific research results into teaching resources plays a significant role in stimulating students' interest in learning, improving students' ability to solve problems, and achieving curriculum objectives, all of which greatly improve the teaching effect.

Interprofessional Active Learning for Chronic Pain: Transforming Student Learning From Recall to Application.

Chronic pain (CP) affects over 50 million Americans daily and represents a unique challenge for healthcare professionals due to its complexity. Across all health professions, only a small percentage of the curriculum is devoted to treating patients with CP. Unfortunately, much of the content is delivered passively via lecture without giving students an opportunity to practice the communication skills to effectively treat patients in the clinic. An interprofessional team of health educators identified 5 essential messages that students frequently struggle to convey to patients with CP. Those messages were based on interprofessional and profession-specific competencies to treat patients with CP from the International Association for the Study of Pain. The 5 messages highlighted the importance of (1) therapeutic alliance, (2) consistent interdisciplinary language, (3) patient prognosis, (4) evidence for pain medicine, surgery, and imaging, and (5) early referral to the interprofessional team. For each message, the team summarized relevant research supporting the importance of each individual message that could serve as a foundation for didactic content. The team then developed active learning educational activities that educators could use to have students practice the skills tied to each message. Each learning activity was designed to be delivered in an interprofessional manner.

Construction and application of bilingual test question database of digitalized systematic anatomy for international students in China / 中华医学教育探索杂志

Objective:To explore the teaching resources innovation and the teaching quality improvement for international students in clinical medicine based on the bilingual test question database of digitalized systematic anatomy.Methods:The test question database was set up and applied to Batch 2018 international students of clinical medicine (experiment group). The results of the usual test, final theory, and experimental examination of Batch 2017 international students (control group) were compared to verify the application value of the test question database. Questionnaires were used to get feedback from international students, and the feasibility of developing the test question database and the driving effect of teaching reform were further evaluated. SPSS 20.0 was used for data analysis, and the examination achievements of the two groups were compared with independent-samples t test and the measurement data were expressed by (mean ± standard deviation). Results:There was no significant difference between the two groups in the usual test results ( P>0.05), and in the experimental group, the results of final theory and experimental examination were significantly higher than those in the control group ( P<0.05). According to the questionnaire, more than 89.55%(155) of the international students highly appraised the test question database in terms of learning resources, quality of questions, examination mode and experience evaluation, while only 52.02%(90) of them recognized the bilingual form of the test questions. Conclusion:The bilingual test question database of digital systematic anatomy has effectively expanded the teaching resources and promoted the teaching reform of international students.

Construction and application effect of teaching resources of human physiology course from the perspective of demand analysis theory / 中华医学教育探索杂志

Objective:Based on the theory of demand analysis theory, to build teaching resources of human physiology course and explore its application effect.Methods:The three-year nursing junior college students of Batch 2018 were selected as the research objects. According to the principle of randomization, the students were divided into the observation group (97 cases) and control group (99 cases). Students in the observation group used integrated teaching resources from the perspective of demand analysis, while students in the control group used traditional curriculum resources. After the end of the course, the differences between the two groups of students' theoretical and practical assessment results and teaching experience were compared SPSS 20.0 was used for t test. Results:The results of theoretical [(73.67±8.76) vs. (70.48±8.36)] and practical skills [(84.41±4.83) vs. (83.63±4.27)] in the observation group were significantly different from those in the control group ( P<0.05). The overall scores of 9 teaching effect sub-items, such as learning awareness of inquiry, independent learning ability and critical thinking ability, were significantly higher than those of the control group ( P<0.01). Conclusion:The construction of human physiology teaching resources based on demand analysis theory can improve the effectiveness and pertinence of resource construction, and the effective use of resources in teaching can significantly improve the teaching effect, stimulate students' subjective initiative, cultivate their comprehensive ability and improve classroom efficiency.

Extraction of PE Online Teaching Resources With Positive Psychology Based on Advanced Intelligence Algorithm.

Physical education (PE) teaching resources occupy a very important position in the teaching of PE theory. Especially in the context of the Internet era, how to effectively extract PE teaching resources from the Internet is very important for PE teachers. However, the quality of PE teaching resources on the Internet is uneven, if not correctly identified, it will bring harm to students' values. Therefore, it is very necessary to correctly identify the teaching resources of positive psychology. In the era of artificial intelligence, advanced intelligent algorithms provide a solution for the realization of this purpose. In this study, a text sentiment analysis model multi-layer-attention convolutional neural network (ACNN)-CNN based on hierarchical CNN is proposed, which combines the advantages of convolutional neural networks and the attention mechanism. In multi-layer-ACNN-CNN, position encoding information is added to the embedding layer to improve the accuracy of text sentiment classification. In order to verify the performance of the model, online PE teaching resources are extracted by a crawler system and the proposed model is used to classify the positive psychology of the teaching resources. By comparison, the proposed model obtained a better positive psychology classification effect in the experiment, which verifies that the model can extract text features more accurately, and is more suitable for emotion classification of long texts.

Effectiveness of Different Teaching Resources for Forming the Concept of Magnitude in Older Preschoolers with Varied Levels of Executive Functions.

Background: Studies have shown the great importance of early mathematical development as a predictor of subsequent success, which poses the question of how to organize preschool mathematical education with a view to the children's age characteristics, including their cognitive development. In other words, mathematical concepts and actions should be formed with the help of teaching resources appropriate to the child's development. Objective: To determine the effectiveness of three teaching resources (examples, models, and symbols) in formation of the concept of magnitude in older preschoolers (ages 6-7) with different levels of executive function. Design: Four training programs (with 15 twenty-minute lessons each) were developed and conducted in a formative experiment for older preschoolers with different levels of development of executive functions. The lessons addressed the concept of magnitude (length, area, volume), using different types of teaching resources: exemplars (in traditional and game variants), models, and symbols. The total sample of 116 subjects (44% boys) was divided into 4 groups for each of the programs, plus a control group in which no sessions were conducted. The groups were equalized according to the initial level of development of concepts of magnitude and the level of development of executive functions. Results: There was a statistically significant increase in the quality of mastery of the concept of magnitude in three experimental groups ("symbolic," "traditional," and "traditional with imaginary characters") compared with the control group. The formative effect of the "model-building" program showed no significant differences from the effect of the child's natural development (the control group). We also showed that children with a low level of regulation learned mathematical concepts more effectively with the "symbolic" program; children with a medium level of regulation with the "symbolic" and any variant of the "traditional" program; and children with a high level of regulation with the "symbolic" and "model-building" programs. Conclusion: The findings underline the importance of both the type of teaching resources used and the level of development of voluntary regulation, when teaching mathematics to preschoolers.

Medical Students' Opinions of Anatomy Teaching Resources and Their Role in Achieving Learning Outcomes.

Several teaching resources are used to enhance the learning of anatomy. The purpose of this study was to examine the preference of medical students on the use of various resources to learn anatomy and their link to 12 learning outcomes. A selected response item questionnaire was administered that asked students to rank six laboratory teaching resources from most to least preferred, and rate how useful these six resources were towards achieving 12 learning outcomes. These learning outcomes covered many of the learning domains such as demonstrating an understanding of anatomy, visualizing structures, appreciating clinical correlations, and understanding anatomical variations. Medical students ranked cadaveric prosections paired with an active learning clinical tutorial as the highest rank and most useful resource for learning anatomy, followed by dissection videos, electronic resources, and printed material, followed by plastinated specimens and plastic models. Overall, cadaveric prosections were also rated as the most helpful teaching resource in achieving various learning outcomes. In conclusion, anatomy teachers should provide prosections coupled with clinical tutorials as well as electronic resources as students prefer these and think they help them learn anatomy. Future studies will investigate the impact of using these resources on students' performance. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40670-021-01436-2.

The Hidden Curriculum of Utilisation of Imaging and Unregulated Digital Resources within Clinical Education.

Clinical education has changed dramatically over the last 30 years. The increasing use of imaging and visualisation technologies within medical, dental and other healthcare sciences education curricula is taken for granted, with little consideration given to the agenda behind the colonisation of the basic sciences curricula with these technologies or their ultimate utility with regards to patient care. Sufficient critique is rarely given prior to the incorporation of imaging modalities into teaching and learning, and the hidden curriculum remains deeply buried under the impetus to 'move with the times'. Coupled with increasingly easily accessible but unregulated streamed digital teaching resources widely utilised in healthcare professions' curricula, there remains a danger that future generations of clinicians may be exposed to erroneous information that could ultimately impact on the safety of their patients. Educators must develop a reflective approach, and together with institutions develop a collective responsibility to integrate and map evidence-based and clinically-relevant approaches within the respective curricula, rather than bombard undergraduates with the latest technology and never-ending (and sometimes unreliable and unregulated) information without awareness of the potential dangers lurking within their preferred teaching methods and ideologies. Healthcare professionals must subject teaching resources utilised within their curricula to the same scrutiny that textbooks undergo, with content accuracy and endorsement via reputable sources, preferably peer reviewed and traceable, taking precedence.

A autorregulação percebida como preditora da utilização de recursos no moodle / Perceived self-regulation as a predictor of resource use in moodle / Lautorégulation perçue como prédictrice de lutilisation de ressources moodle / Autorregulación percibida como predictor del uso de recursos en moodle

Resumo Autorregulação da aprendizagem implica refletir sobre a utilização de recursos educativos para gerir o que, quando, como, com quem e por que aprender. Este artigo pretendeu investigar a relação entre a perceção dos alunos sobre o planeamento, execução e autoavaliação da aprendizagem e a seleção de recursos e atividades do Moodle. Responderam ao Inventário de Recursos e Atividades em Ambientes Moodle e ao Inventário de Aprendizagem Autorregulada em Ambientes Moodle 438 alunos (7º ao 9º ano). Uma análise de regressão mostrou que a perceção dos alunos sobre o planeamento, execução e autoavaliação da aprendizagem prediz a seleção de recursos e atividades de disponibilização de informação e de realização de trabalho, mas não de colaboração/interação em todas as fases de regulação do trabalho.

Abstract Self-regulated learning involves reflecting on the use of educational resources to manage what, when, how, with whom, and why to learn. Thus, this study investigated the relationship between students' perceptions regarding the planning, execution and self-evaluation of learning and the selection of Moodle resources and activities. A total of 438 middle school students (grades 7-9) responded to the Inventory of Resources and Activities in Moodle Environments and to the Inventory of Self-regulated Learning in Moodle Environments. A regression analysis showed that the students' perception about the planning, execution and self-evaluation of learning predicted the selection of resources and activities pertaining to information availability and work accomplishment, but not to collaboration/interaction in all phases of work regulation.

Résumé L'autorégulation de l'apprentissage suppose une réflexion sur l'utilisation des ressources éducatives pour gérer quoi, quand, comment, avec qui et pourquoi apprendre. Cet article a pour objet le rapport entre la perception des élèves à propos de la planification, l'exécution et l'autoévaluation de l'apprentissage et la sélection de ressources et activités Moodle. Un total de 438 collégiens ont répondu à l'Inventaire de Ressources et Activités Moodle et à l'Inventaire de l'Apprentissage Autorégulé en Environnements Moodle. Une analyse de régression a montré que la perception des élèves concernant la planification, l'exécution et l'autoévaluation de l'apprentissage prédit la sélection de ressources et activités relatives à la disponibilité de l'information et à la réalisation du travail, mais non la collaboration/interaction dans toutes les phases de la régulation du travail.

Resumen La autorregulación implica reflexionar sobre la utilización de recursos educativos para hacer la gestión de qué, cuándo y cómo, con quién y por qué aprender. Este artículo pretendió investigar la relación entre la percepción de los alumnos sobre el planeamiento, la ejecución y la autoevaluación del aprendizaje, y la selección de recursos y de actividades del Moodle. Respondieron, al Inventario de Recursos y Actividades en Ambientes Moodle y al Inventario de Aprendizaje Autorregulado en Ambientes Moodle, 438 alumnos (7º al 9º años).Un análisis de regresión mostró que la percepción de los alumnos sobre el planeamiento, la ejecución y la autoevaluación del aprendizaje predice la selección de recursos y de actividades de poner a disposición informaciones y de realización del trabajo, pero no de colaboración/interacción en todas las fases de regulación del trabajo.

La gestión de información estadística relacionada con las actividades formativas en la Universidad Virtual de Salud / Statistical information management related to the training activities in the Health Virtual University

Introducción: Las tecnologías de la información y las comunicaciones han originado cambios imprevisibles y vertiginosos en las distintas esferas de la vida. Objetivo: Caracterizar el estado actual de la gestión de información estadística relacionada con las actividades formativas en la Universidad Virtual de Salud de Santiago de Cuba. Métodos: Se realizó un estudio descriptivo y longitudinal de evaluación durante el curso escolar 2016-2017 en la Universidad de Ciencias Médicas de Santiago de Cuba. Resultados: Los gestores poseían pocos años de experiencia como activistas de UNIVERS; se aprovechaban variadas fuentes de información primaria para recolectar la información; no existía uniformidad en los modelos de registros primarios y era limitado el empleo de aplicaciones informáticas que contribuyeran a organizar, procesar, archivar, controlar, recuperar y agilizar la información estadística. De igual modo, el proceso de gestión de edición y emisión de certificados manuales resultaba moroso y difícil. Conclusiones: Se determinó que no siempre los gestores de UNIVERS percibían las potencialidades de las tecnologías para obtener la información estadística y que, a pesar de que se realizaban actividades de alfabetización utilizando las herramientas que brinda esta plataforma de teleformación, existía escaso aprovechamiento de estas para garantizar un adecuado análisis, control y emisión de la información estadística de las actividades formativas y los recursos educativos abiertos en la Universidad Virtual de Salud.

Introduction: Information and communications technologies have originated unforeseeable and vertiginous changes in the different spheres of life. Objective: To characterize the current state of the statistical information management related to the training activities in the Health Virtual University in Santiago de Cuba. Methods: A descriptive and longitudinal study of evaluation during the school course 2016-2017 was carried out in the Medical Sciences University in Santiago de Cuba. Results: The managers had few years of experience as activists of UNIVERS; they took advantage from varied primary information sources to gather the information; there was no uniformity in the models of primary records and the use of computer tools was limited which contributed to organize, to process, to file, to control, to recover and to make faster the statistical information. Likewise, edition and emission of manual certificates was a doubtful and difficult process. Conclusions: It was determined that UNIVERS managers not always perceived the potentialities of technologies for obtaining statistical information and that, although there were literacy activities carried out using the tools offered by this training platform, there was scarce use of them to guarantee an appropriate analysis, control and emission of the statistical information of training activities and the teaching open resources emerging in the Health Virtual University.

Construction and application effect of teaching resources database for orthodontics / 中华医学教育探索杂志

Objective To investigate the construction process and application effect of teaching resources database for orthodontics. Methods A questionnaire survey was performed among 40 students and 8 teachers in Department of Stomatology Affiliated Hospital of Inner Mongolia Medical University to investigate the need for the construction of teaching resources database . A total of 60 undergraduates who did not enter clinical practice were selected and randomly divided into experimental group and control group, with 30 students in each group, and theoretical teaching and assessment of special topics were performed. The independent samples t-test was used to compare examination results between the two groups and evaluate the application effect of teaching resources database. After 2 weeks of theoretical teaching, 30 students in the experimental group were surveyed for their satisfaction with the teaching resources database. Results The results of the questionnaire survey on the need for resources database construction showed that all teachers and students wanted to use the resources database in teaching; the students needed the examination database and the case library the most, while the teachers needed the courseware database the most. Of all teachers and students, 61.7％ hoped to obtain resources through fixed website platforms, and 93％ of the students and 87.5％ of the teachers expressed their interests in online interaction. The satisfaction analysis of the teaching resources database showed that more than 90％of the students were satisfied with the practicability , high efficiency , and vividness of the teaching resources database, and 76.7％ of the students were satisfied with the authority and comprehensiveness of the database. As for the application effect of the teaching resources database, the experimental group had significantly higher examination scores than the control group (P<0.05). Conclusion The teaching resources database for orthodontics should be constructed based on the needs of teachers and students and the teaching syllabus. Teaching resources should be collected comprehensively, the evaluation system should be improved and optimized, and development and utilization of the database should be performed with the help of network platforms.

Strategies of Building Cloud Sharing Platform of Quality Medical Teaching Resources / 医学信息学杂志

The paper analyzes the building and use situation of teaching resources in medical schools and teaces hospitals,expatiates on the importance and the specific construction idea of building the cloud sharing platform of medical teaching resources,which includes optimization of the existing resources,thoughts of architecture,architecture selection and technical realization,points out that the platform is able to enhance medical education level and promote the development of educational informatization.

Corrigendum: Hauntings, homeopathy, and the Hopkinsville Goblins: using pseudoscience to teach scientific thinking.

[This corrects the article on p. 336 in vol. 5, PMID: 24860520.].

Reflexión sobre los procesos de enseñanza-aprendizaje de la anatomía veterinaria / Reflection on the process of learning-teaching of veterinary anatomy

La anatomía macroscópica veterinaria es una rama de la morfología encargada del estudio de las características normales del cuerpo del animal, y para los procesos de enseñanza-aprendizaje se han utilizado diversos recursos, desde una enseñanza tradicional con cadáveres fijados en formol hasta una complementación con materiales multimedia, exigida por la continua disminución de las horas presenciales en los currículos de medicina veterinaria, por lo tanto, en el presente artículo se muestran diversas metodologías utilizadas tanto en anatomía veterinaria como humana por diversos autores, demostrándonos que cada una tiene ventajas y desventajas pero su integración mejora la comprensión por parte del estudiante, y como autores defendemos esta integración sin alejarnos de la utilización directa del cadáver junto con la aplicación de la terminología anatómica veterinaria actual como principal recurso didáctico en el proceso de enseñanza y aprendizaje de la anatomía macroscópica.

Veterinary gross anatomy is a branch of morphology aimed at studying the normal characteristics of the animal body. The teaching-learning processes have used various resources, from a traditional teaching cadavers fixed in formalin to a complementation with multimedia materials. As a result of the continued decline of the classroom hours participation in the curricula of veterinary medicine, this article shows a number of methodologies used in both veterinary and human anatomy by various authors. Each one has advantages and disadvantages their integration however, enhances student understanding. As authors we advocate this integration without veering from the use of cadavers and current veterinary anatomical terminology as the main teaching resources in the process of teaching and learning gross anatomy.

Does the use of the Informed Healthcare Choices (IHC) primary school resources improve the ability of grade-5 children in Uganda to assess the trustworthiness of claims about the effects of treatments: protocol for a cluster-randomised trial.

BACKGROUND: The ability to appraise claims about the benefits and harms of treatments is crucial for informed health care decision-making. This research aims to enable children in East African primary schools (the clusters) to acquire and retain skills that can help them make informed health care choices by improving their ability to obtain, process and understand health information. The trial will evaluate (at the individual participant level) whether specially designed learning resources can teach children some of the key concepts relevant to appraising claims about the benefits and harms of health care interventions (treatments). METHODS: This is a two-arm, cluster-randomised trial with stratified random allocation. We will recruit 120 primary schools (the clusters) between April and May 2016 in the central region of Uganda. We will stratify participating schools by geographical setting (rural, semi-urban, or urban) and ownership (public or private). The Informed Healthcare Choices (IHC) primary school resources consist of a textbook and a teachers' guide. Each of the students in the intervention arm will receive a textbook and attend nine lessons delivered by their teachers during a school term, with each lesson lasting 80 min. The lessons cover 12 key concepts that are relevant to assessing claims about treatments and making informed health care choices. The second arm will carry on with the current primary school curriculum. We have designed the Claim Evaluation Tools to measure people's ability to apply key concepts related to assessing claims about the effects of treatments and making informed health care choices. The Claim Evaluation Tools use multiple choice questions addressing each of the 12 concepts covered by the IHC school resources. Using the Claim Evaluation Tools we will measure two primary outcomes: (1) the proportion of children who 'pass', based on an absolute standard and (2) their average scores. DISCUSSION: As far as we are aware this is the first randomised trial to assess whether key concepts needed to judge claims about the effects of treatment can be taught to primary school children. Whatever the results, they will be relevant to learning how to promote critical thinking about treatment claims. Trial status: the recruitment of study participants was ongoing at the time of manuscript submission. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Pan African Clinical Trial Registry, trial identifier: PACTR201606001679337 . Registered on 13 June 2016.

Can an educational podcast improve the ability of parents of primary school children to assess the reliability of claims made about the benefits and harms of treatments: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Claims made about the effects of treatments are very common in the media and in the population more generally. The ability of individuals to understand and assess such claims can affect their decisions and health outcomes. Many people in both low- and high-income countries have inadequate aptitude to assess information about the effects of treatments. As part of the Informed Healthcare Choices project, we have prepared a series of podcast episodes to help improve people's ability to assess claims made about treatment effects. We will evaluate the effect of the Informed Healthcare Choices podcast on people's ability to assess claims made about the benefits and harms of treatments. Our study population will be parents of primary school children in schools with limited educational and financial resources in Uganda. METHODS: This will be a two-arm, parallel-group, individual-randomised trial. We will randomly allocate consenting participants who meet the inclusion criteria for the trial to either listen to nine episodes of the Informed Healthcare Choices podcast (intervention) or to listen to nine typical public service announcements about health issues (control). Each podcast includes a story about a treatment claim, a message about one key concept that we believe is important for people to be able to understand to assess treatment claims, an explanation of how that concept applies to the claim, and a second example illustrating the concept. We designed the Claim Evaluation Tools to measure people's ability to apply key concepts related to assessing claims made about the effects of treatments and making informed health care choices. The Claim Evaluation Tools that we will use include multiple-choice questions addressing each of the nine concepts covered by the podcast. Using the Claim Evaluation Tools, we will measure two primary outcomes: (1) the proportion that 'pass', based on an absolute standard and (2) the average score. DISCUSSION: As far as we are aware this is the first randomised trial to assess the use of mass media to promote understanding of the key concepts needed to judge claims made about the effects of treatments. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Pan African Clinical Trials Registry, PACTR201606001676150. Registered on 12 June 2016. http://www.pactr.org/ATMWeb/appmanager/atm/atmregistry?dar=true&tNo=PACTR201606001676150 .

ERIN: A Portal to Resources for Higher Education in Neuroscience.

ERIN, Educational Resources in Neuroscience, is the Society for Neuroscience's web portal to selected, high-quality materials for higher education. A Board of Editors approves resources after describing them and classifying them by topic, subtopic, media type, author, and appropriate educational level. Some resources are also accompanied by reviews and ratings from faculty who have used the resource. These features make a search of ERIN far more useful than a typical Google search. ERIN's development was funded by the National Science Foundation with a three-year grant to SfN. Along the way, various unexpected problems arose and solutions were found, many of which are described in this overview of ERIN's history and the various decisions that were made in its design and development.