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Peer Review

Cellular Immune Response

Reviewed:

Sep 23, 2020 by Biology
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Ratings

Overall Rating: 4.8 stars
Content Quality: 4.8 stars
Effectiveness: 4.8 stars
Ease of Use: 5.0 stars
Overview:

Cellular immune responce is a site that offers a good overview of the immune response that occurs in the body. Users can view a short animation of this process, or a narrated version of the same material. There is also a short quiz on the site to reinforce the topic. Information provided on the site is accurate and not overly complicated. Users can also choose to explore different kinds of immune processes and how these topic can be applied to biological and laboratory tests.

Type of Material:

 A short (less than 2 minutes) animated video.

Recommended Uses:

This website can be used in a classroom, but is probably best suited for undergraduate biology or immunology courses.

Technical Requirements:

Works well in Firefox. 

Identify Major Learning Goals:

Users will learn about the cellular immune response, as well as the different cell types and antigens involved in this process.

Target Student Population:

College General Ed, College Lower Division.

Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:

Students should understand what a cell is.  While the material is stand alone it is meant to supplement a lesson on the immune system and disease.

Content Quality

Rating:
Strengths:

  • The information is accurate and provides a good background of the material
  • The information is not overly complicated
  • The animations are fairly straightforward and intuitive
  • The quizzes on the site helps reinforce the material
Concerns:

  • The links for the other pages of the site are a little hard to find and not pointed out in the other modules.
  • The quizzes are quite short
  • The link to the site opens the 3rd of 5 modules, but introductory immunological information is presented in the first module

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:
Strengths:

  • The material is presented in way that could be used in a lecture.
  • Material builds upon knowledge in multiple ways depending on how users navigate through the site
  • The collection of material makes it fun and easy to explore many aspects of the subject matter.
  • Narrations help users focus on key concepts
Concerns:

  • Learning objectives are not clearly presented
  • An assessment would help students determine if they have learned the material 
  • The site would benefit from an overall introductory module that points users in the direction of the other 5 modules on the site and states the purpose and learning objectives.

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:
Strengths:

  • The animations flow quite easily and are intuitive
  • The information is easy to understand and not overly in depth or complex
  • No defective links or animations were found
  • The information in each modules is logically organized
Concerns:

  • The site would benefit by having links to the other modules embedded in the previous module
  • The narration is very effective and it may be help to combine the narrated and text version of the animations into one tab instead of having them separate
  • Subtitles would help the hearing impaired
Other Issues and Comments:

The material is very useful as a small part of a class on  the immune system 

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