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Peer Review

A Primer of Evolution: An Introduction to Evolutionary Thought: Theory, Evidence, and Practice

Reviewed:
Jan 21, 2023 by Biology
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Ratings

Overall Rating: 4.5 stars
Content Quality: 4.5 stars
Effectiveness: 4.5 stars
Ease of Use: 4.5 stars
Overview:

A Primer of Evolution is an open educational resource designed for a one-semester class on Evolutionary Biology. It provides a succinct introduction to evolutionary thought revolving around theory, evidence, and practice. It introduces some of the theoretical cornerstones and core concepts of modern evolutionary biology.

Type of Material:

Open Access (OER) Textbook

Recommended Uses:

In-class as primary or alternate textbook in an upper division Science class, a handy resource for researchers and students.

Homework: students can read and come prepared some units in classroom for discussions.

Technical Requirements:

The text can be read using any web browser. To complete the exercises in the book, installing of R and RStudio is required.

Identify Major Learning Goals:
  • Students will learn what evolution is.
  • Students will be able to explore structure of a population.
  • Students will be able to apply the knowledge, concepts and skills to navigate through the evolutionary processes regulating organism development.
  • Students will be able to elaborate how to identify a role of a gene in controlling phenotype of an organism.
  • Students will understand the importance of scientific tools and techniques to evaluate human evolution.
  • Students will be able to articulate testable hypotheses that explain natural phenomena.
Target Student Population:

College Lower Division, College Upper Division, Graduate School

University students and research students.

Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:

Familiarity with Biology vocabulary and some statistical knowledge of programming using R and RStudio

Content Quality

Rating:
Strengths:
  • The information is a comprehensive survey of what may be studied for this course
  • Accurate, current and relevant content
  • Conceptual flow of information in form of units and chapters.
Concerns:

None.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:
Strengths:
  • The chapter content is progressively presented, and the information builds sequentially
  • Helps students understand the relatedness of the topics
  • References are provided so students can further improve their understanding of the concepts
  • Provides hands-on practice on how statistical analysis supports the concepts
  • A basic tutorial on the R statistical program and how to install it helps students understand and extrapolate the data for broader understanding
  • The text is supported by images and videos - which can be used for case studies.
  • The reflection questions are useful for in-classroom discussions and in-formal assessment.
  • The text can be accessed from remote locations or downloaded and save in an asynchronous setting.
Concerns:
  • More recent research articles might be integrated

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:
Strengths:
  • Content is presented in a concise and logical manner
  • The topics are well-organized with a table of contents that is hyperlinked to the text
  • Navigation is easy
  • Multimedia support presented appropriately in logical places
  • Links seemed to all work
  • The tutorial on R enhances understanding of the visuals, graphs, and line drawings
Concerns:
  • Some multiple choice questions for formative assessment for each sub-topic would be helpful
Other Issues and Comments:

This OER textbook will support a complete course and can be easily adopted and customized to meet the needs of the faculty and students

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