Dr. Nour and Dr. Coppoc have initiated the development of a link with UNESCO to establish and coordinate the UNESCO\UNITWIN Biological Sciences Network, and links with universities in the middle East for improving biological sciences education. As a result the following activities took place :

Two SVM faculty Dr. Nour and Dr. Coppoc were invited to conduct two workshops in Egypt (1994) and Qatar (1996) on interactive multimedia technologies in teaching biological and biomedical sciences.

Dr. Nour, Lehman and Coppoc also conducted a workshop on new technologies and methodologies for teaching biological sciences (March 3-6, United Arab Emirates University and Qatar).

Purdue proposed the establishment of the UNESCO/ UNITWIN Regional Center for Courseware development at Ain Shams. The Center was established and Dr. Khalifa was appointed the Center's Coordinator. This regional center is established, as suggested by Purdue, to help science faculty in the region to acquire knowledge of computers and multimedia technologies, upgrade level of their teaching methods and acquire multimedia teaching resources for their courses to reflect the local the local biological diversity.

A Senior Scholar, Dr. Khalifa, came from Egypt to Purdue in 1995 to learn about developing multimedia products on CD-ROMs. His visit was supported by Purdue, UNESCO and Ain Shams. Purdue provided technical support. Dr. Khalifa succeeded in developing two CD-ROMs and multimedia interactive lesson modules and microfiches. The microfiches are in use in the schools of science and pharmacy in Egypt.

Dr. Khaliha, of Ain Shams University, visited Purdue in August-Sept. 1996 to continue his work with Dr. Nour, Roesel, Coppoc and Harrington on development of multimedia resources on CD-ROMs using Toolbook 5.0 and the authoring system (VAGUS) developed by Dr. Roesel (Basic Medical Sciences) and to experiment with the internet for delivery of courses to students in the Middle East.

Dr. Dave Sammons traveled on to Doha to visit the University of Qatar to reciprocate the visit by the President (Ibrahim Al Naimi) and Dean of Science (Abdullah Al Kubaisi) to this campus last May as part of UNESCO delegation visit that involved a UNECO representative and presidents and vice-presidents of universities in Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Jordan. In Qatar, Dr. Sammons met with the Faculty of Science to review and discuss their new program in agriculture. They also discussed other potential areas of interaction including collaborative research activities and the case study part of the environmental curriculum project. These case studies will be built, in each participating institution, around key are in the environmental arena: solid waste management, water treatment, and bioremediation applications to environmental problems.

In collaboration with the UNESCO regional office in Egypt, a UNESCO/UNITWIN pre-proposal for inter-university cooperation was submitted (Proposed budget $900,000) by Dr. Coppoc and Dr. Nour to gain support for computerization in higher education in developing countries and for introduction of new information and communication technologies to the educational field. A plenary fund ($30,000) was granted to cover cost of equipment, software, workshop and SVM faculty visits to Jordan and Cairo.

Dr. Nour, Dr. Khalifa, and Dr. Coppoc Visit with the Director of the Computer Center and Dr. Bayoumi at University of Qator.