Peer Review

Get Body Smart: Anatomy and Physiology

Material Detail page

Reviewed:: Dec 5, 2011 by Biology

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Ratings

Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:: "Get Body Smart: Anatomy and Physiology" is a tutorial, or as the author suggests, an online, interactive textbook on human anatomy and physiology. It contains sections about the body as a whole, bones, muscles, the nervous system, heart and circulation, respiration, the urinary system, and histology. It is geared toward high school or first year college students, who are taking an introductory anatomy and physiology course. Each system is presented with illustrations and text to explain the function of body parts. Interactive quizzes follow some sections.
Type of Material:: This material is presented mostly as an interactive resource for different parts of human systems.
Recommended Uses:: These materials will be best used for individual study. The student can use it to review material learned in the classroom. The site provides a nice review for students needing to remind themselves of structures before exams.
Technical Requirements:: The material is navigated with HTML, although some parts require use of Adobe Flash Player.
Identify Major Learning Goals:: Users will learn about the bones and their markings, muscles and their functions, parts of the nervous system, major vessels and parts of the heart, the lungs and bronchi, gross and micro- anatomy of the urinary system and basic histology.
Target Student Population:: The material in this website is introductory and very basic. The primary target is anatomy and physiology classes in high school and first year college. The learning materials might be useful to anyone without a whole lot of experience with anatomy. Younger students may find it useful also, they could certainly navigate around in it and be able to learn stuff. It can also be helpful as an introduction or remediation in upper level anatomy courses.
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:: There are no prerequisites for this site, although some knowledge of basic human anatomy will help users to understand what is presented.

Content Quality

Rating:

Strengths:

The content is well organized for the human systems addressed
Material is accurate
Pictures and labels are simple
Quality of graphics is very good
Immediate feedback provided for the quizzes

Concerns:

More of the human systems (digestive, endocrine, reproductive, etc.) should be included at this site
Some citations or references for the site would be useful

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:

Strengths:

Material is intuitive and in logical order
Opening page lists the major topics to be covered so users know what to expect
Very good for use at home to learn human anatomy
The quizzes at the end of some sections provide a good review of learning material

Concerns:

Objectives are not clearly stated
This site would benefit from more animations or interactivity
Major concepts aren’t tied together; there is no flow or relationship between topics

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:

Strengths:

Very easy to navigate to the different major sections of site
No defects were detected
Information is easy to understand
Diagrams and lables are simple

Concerns:

Instructions are sparse, but site is is pretty intuitive

Other Issues and Comments:: This is a great basic site for learning several of the human systems. This site is useful, but the more you add to it, the better it will be.
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