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Peer Review

Bright Leaves: Tobacco Materials in the Collection of NCSU Libraries

Reviewed:

Mar 31, 2018 by Biology
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Ratings

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

Tobacco, one of the most prominent crops grown by natives of North Carolina in the 1500's, has intrigued botanists ever since their first encounter with what they called the "divine herb." This site tells of tobacco from its history to farm life.

The website provides information about the history of tobacco and its effects on agricultural sciences. The site somewhat focuses on how tobacco has played a role in North Carolina. The information over tobacco spans a wide range of topics.
Type of Material:

Presentation. This is a virtual museum exhibit hosted by North Carolina State University Library

This site is mostly reference material which students can look at for both a factual and historical presentation of information
Recommended Uses:

The material can be used in the classroom.

For students or instructors doing research projects.

Technical Requirements:

This site requires use of a basic web browser.
Identify Major Learning Goals:

Users will learn about the history of tobacco and how it has been treated agriculturally.

This is a museum exhibit which present information about the history of tabacco, especially in relation to North Carolina State Universty and the state of North Carolina.

Target Student Population:

High school and middle school students can benefit from this site, or anyone researching tobacco.
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:

There are no pre-requisites for this site.

Content Quality

Rating:
Strengths:

  • The content is well organized and each topic is easily accessible
  • The information gives a unique view by showing a historical view of agricultural
  • The images provided give a interesting perspective on the topic
  • This site contains a huge amount of information about the history of tobacco, especially in North Carolina
  • There are many historical images
Concerns:

  • Content does not provide a sufficient amount of material about the topic although the information is does provide is engaging
  • The information is more useful for its historical knowledge rather than its biological information
  • The site is mostly relevant to North Carolina State University and the region
  • No sources are cited, although the credits say that all materials are from the NCSU libraries collection
  • There are misspellings and scientific names are rendered inaccurately

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:
Strengths:

  • Material builds upon knowledge in multiple ways through its use of interdisciplinary topics
  • The mixture of images and text make the material intriguing
  • The site is well organized
  • The history is compelling and illustrated with figures
Concerns:

  • The material would be more appealing if the website provided some sort of animation or interactivity
  • The material while interesting is somewhat focused on a specific region and might not translate easily into all classrooms
  • The website design appears dated and is very simple and not very professional
  • The color scheme of the website is not appealing and does not present sufficient contrast

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:
Strengths:

  • The topics are presented in an easily navigated manner
  • The information is shown in a way that is easy to understand
  • The site was quick to load and there were no major defects in the website
  • There is a text only version
  • The menus and links all work
  • The images enlarge when clicked
  • There is a back button in addtion to the next button
  • The text can be enlarged
Concerns:

  • The color scheme was unusual and caused a small amount of strain on the eyes, though there is a text only version which helps get around this problem
  • There are some pages that are accessed with the next button in the Introduction that are not connected to a menu entry
Other Issues and Comments:

The website has a somewhat narrow focus on agriculture in North Carolina.
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