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Peer Review

Pollination Home Page

Reviewed:

Mar 31, 2018 by Biology
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Ratings

Overall Rating: 4.2 stars
Content Quality: 4.2 stars
Effectiveness: 4.5 stars
Ease of Use: 4.0 stars
Overview:

The Pollination Homepage does a great job at explaining the importance of pollen with examples. The illustration of Liebig's barrel was also extremely helpful in explaining how one factor can lead to a loss as a whole. The page has links to help you learn about pollination, receiving pollination services, the writers blog, and also other topics of interest. The website could be an invaluable for tool for pollination beekeepers, farmers, or people wanting to learn more about bees.
Type of Material:

Reference Material.

Users can educate themselves on the processes of pollination with this website. It could be an essential site for crop owners.
Recommended Uses:

This could be a helpful website for people that need their crops pollinated. It could also aid in helping individuals learn what is needed for correct pollination.

This site does not focus on academic education about bees. It is directed more at hobbiest, farmer, beekeepers. Although some of the resources linked in this site might be useful for students, the wealth of up to date, scientific/academic resources on pollination, and the lack of academic reliability  make this site mostly unusable by students for college work.  

Technical Requirements:

This site contains mostly html/text, and .mpg videos that may require a video player.

Identify Major Learning Goals:

Users will learn about the importance of pollen, how to pollinate crops, and managing pollination. Any of these things could help an individual who needs their crops pollinated. Crops that are pollinated thoroughly produce better fruits, vegetable, etc.

This site seeks to promote the importance of pollination and to curate resources related to pollination.

Target Student Population:

General Public, with an interest in beekeeping, pollination management, and related subjects.

General Public, with an interest in beekeeping, pollination management, and related subjects.

Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:

There are no pre-requisites for this site.

Content Quality

Rating:
Strengths:

  • Most of the images are good quality
  • Images are appropriately categorized
  • The topics are well-organized
  • The information is accurate and provides a good basic background about the material
  • There is a small wealth of information on this site, mostly through essays written by the website creator and through links to other sites
  • There are lots of images available on the site
  • There are a lot of links to resources for beekeepers and farmers/gardeners
  • This site reinforces two important points about pollination
    • it is critical for many plants and for many agricultural situations
    • pollination can be effected by vectors other than honeybees
Concerns:

  • The site has not been updated since 2012 and many sections perhaps even less recently
  • The site does not mention Colony Collapse Disorder or other current concerns among beekeepers
  • Some of the information is inaccurate and the site includes very little academically reliable information

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:
Strengths:

  • This is a good site for getting an idea of what might be seen in nature
  • Narrations help users focus on key concepts
  • Material is presented in such a way that it can be used in lecture li>Material builds upon knowledge in multiple ways depending on how users navigate through the site
  • The site appears to be an effective clearning house for information on pollination for beekeepers
  • The site advocates strongly for the value of pollination both at home and in horticultural/agricultural situations
  • The author's passion for pollination comes through loud and clear and is likely effective in converting people to be pro-pollination
Concerns:

  • Material is basically text and images, which may not be very exciting for users who prefer animations
  • The materials, and the way they are presented, are not necessarily engaging, but still very straightforward
  • The layout is very old, with varying font sizes, spacing and such, which reduces its effectiveness
  • The site has borne an Under Construction banner for at least 3 years now, and has no material since 2012
  • The blog of the author is engaging, but not always scientifically accurate, and veers into religion, which might turn off some users (or might further engage others)

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:
Strengths:

  • No defective links or major bugs were found
  • Information is easy to understand
  • The information is organized and follows a logical order
  • Very easy to navigate to the different major sections of site
  • The entire site is organized on a single landing page
  • All links worked except for some dated job and educational opportunity links
Concerns:

  • The entire site is organized on a single landing page, with old-fashioned borders and confusing organization
  • About 70% of the intended links are not active (many listed as under construction)
Other Issues and Comments:

This is an absolutely wonderful site and one of MERLOT’s favorites.

This appears to be a "dead" site. If the author is not going to upgrade both the content and the web design, it will become an increasingly irrelevant site.

Creative Commons:
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