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Peer Review

American Orchid Society

Reviewed:

Apr 17, 2003 by Biology
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Ratings

Overall Rating: 4.7 stars
Content Quality: 5.0 stars
Effectiveness: 4.2 stars
Ease of Use: 4.8 stars
Overview:

This website is the electronic flagship of the American Orchid Association, which also publishes reference materials and administers orchid judging centers in the United States. The learning material includes an exhaustive range of information on virtually every aspect of orchids, as well as several valuable databases, such as that for hybrid parentage and North American Species. While even more detailed scientific and taxonomic data might be desirable, this cannot be a valid criticism given that over 20,000 orchid species exist, with many more natural and man-made interspecific and intergeneric hybrids. The home page includes the following main links: Membership, AOS publications, All About Orchids, The AOS Bookshop & Emporium, Sources For Buying Orchids, Conservation & Research, Calendar Of Events, AOS Threaded Discussion, Gameroom (Puzzles. etc.), and Other Useful WWW Resources. This is an excellent Internet site to keep in mind as a resource and home base for orchid information.
Type of Material:

Collection / Database
Recommended Uses:

This website is primarily designed to provide individual users with information
about orchids. Some features, including pictures and charts of scientific names, may be useful in the classroom.
Technical Requirements:

Technical requirements include use of HTML, PDF files, and some JavaScript.
Identify Major Learning Goals:

Information presented may be used to learn about orchid morphology, taxonomy, propagation, culture, hybridization, and conservation.
Target Student Population:

The general public and orchid enthusiasts will benefit from this site, as well
as students and faculty needing advanced information about orchids.
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:

Some understanding of orchid morphology and taxonomy may be useful when browsing through some of the material.

Content Quality

Rating:
Strengths:

Quality of Content: 4.9, 5.0


  • Exhaustive (if often introductory) presentation of every aspect of orchids, their culture, conservation, judging, propagation, parentage of hybrids, botanical terminology.
  • Links to or sources of more detailed information, taxonomic authorities, orchid materials, and supplies.
  • An "Orchid Forum" serves as a valuable resource to ask questions on any aspects of orchids, as well as to view archived discussions via a search engine.
  • Clearly laid out
  • High quality images
  • Material is accurate and complete
  • Design is interactive and engaging
Concerns:

  • The two sites that could be used to find the parentage and registration of named hybrids are currently listing the hybrid name as the name of both parents.
  • Taxonomic information on species, as well as pictures, that could be used for identification, is very limited. Currently only 18 or so genera (some of which were empty links). However, given the sheer number of genera, much less species, in the orchid family, this would be a very ambitious, if not impossible, undertaking to construct and maintain at this time. This is accomplished instead via a list of reference and personal websites of generally excellent quality.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:
Strengths:

Potential Effectiveness: 4.4, 4.0 = 4.2


  • Excellent resource for the general public, students, and instructors searching for orchid-specific plant information of the types listed above
  • Broad coverage of topics lends itself to flexibility.
  • Research grant application, a part of the website, is designed to encourage educational and institutional research on orchids.
  • Builds knowledge
  • Demonstrates relationships
  • Broad number of topics provides numerous uses
  • Assignments can be developed to accompany the website
Concerns:

  • Topic coverage is exhaustive. While this is particularly well-suited for the orchid hobbyist, it does not overlap with typical high school or college curricula except in a superficial or introductory manner. The obvious exception would be horticulture, in which case it would be a particularly valuable resource and teaching tool.
  • Introductory coverage of (admittedly wide range of) topics does not lend itself to learning assignments (except possibly as noted above, horticulture).

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:
Strengths:

Ease of Use: 4.8, 4.8 = 4.8


  • Excellent organization, presentation, speed, and search engine
  • Given the wide range of topics and aspects covered, the webpages are remarkably clean and uncluttered
  • Easy to navigate
  • Fast with few, if any, defective links
  • Appropriately searchable -- complete with a site map
  • Well organized
  • No major bugs
Concerns:

  • Some links apparently under construction or unfinished, but when attempting to build and maintain a website of this complexity this will probably be the case indefinitely.
  • Search engines for hybrid parentage were not sufficiently self-explanatory in terms of providing definitions or examples.
  • It took a little time to find the pictures and names of different orchid cultivars. Since the pictures are among the best features of this website, it might help to make them easier to find.
Other Issues and Comments:

This is one of the most straightforward and easy-to-use websites available among the plant-related organizations on the Internet. The authors did an excellent job in the recent revision of the content and are encouraged to continue expanding the material.
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