User:Xemmi/Ronald H. Stevens

Ronald "Ron" H. Stevens (born December 3, 1946) is an American university professor and chief officer of an educational software corporation. He is professor of immunology at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine, member of the Brain Research Institute UCLA, and CEO of The Learning Chameleon, Inc.

Education
Stevens received a bachelor of science degree at Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, Ohio in 1968. He earned a Ph.D. in microbiology and molecular genetics in 1971 from Harvard University in Cambridge, MA. He was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship at National Institute for Medical Research in London, England where he honed his expertise in the field of immunology.

Career
University of California, Los Angeles

In 1974 Stevens was hired as an assistant professor in the department of Microbiology & Immunology. He was promoted to associate professor in 1981, and in 1992 he was promoted to professor. In 1996 he held a dual appointment (professor) in the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. His early research focused on immunological properties of lymphocytes, antibodies, & antigens. He has authored or contributed to over one hundred manuscripts on these subjects (see bibliography).

Professor Stevens became the department's course coordinator for 2nd year medical students in 1990. At this point in his career his focus began to shift from immunology research to education research. Disillusioned with true-false, and multiple choice testing, Stevens designed an experimental test for medical students whereby a hypothetical patient required a diagnosis based on a given set of conditions. These conditions were found at the front of the class in several stacks of paper hand-outs. In order to determine the correct diagnosis for the patient, students needed to assimilate the relevant information (and ignore irrelevant information) from the hand-outs. Stevens felt this problem solving approach showed much promise and he realized that these exercises could be delivered as computer simulations.