Peer Review

General Plant Biology

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Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:: Bill Randle has put together a well designed web site to supplement his General Botany course at Ohio State University. Material covered includes atoms and molecules, cells and tissues, plant anatomy and plant physiology as well as a large amount of information regarding plant classification. The information provided in this web site is geared toward under graduate studies.
Type of Material:: Mostly text (web pages) with some images, tables and diagrams.
Recommended Uses:: This material can be used as either a review after the topic has been covered in class, or as a preparation for an upcoming lecture.
Technical Requirements:: A basic web browser. Real Player is needed for the narrated presentation.
Identify Major Learning Goals:: None stated. The general learning goal would be to teach basic plant biology to undergraduate students.
Target Student Population:: Lower division undergraduate students. The material is fairly low level and no background in plant biology is necessary.
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:: Knowledge of General Biology would make the content more meaningful.

Rating:

Strengths:

The material covers the basics for a college-level Plant Biology course
Images included in the text based lectures are nice
There are a number of ancillary materials, such as floral diagrams
There are links and some micrographs included
The greatest strength of these lectures and materials is the diagrams, which are simple, colorful and extremely effective

Concerns:

The material presented is out of date, especially in the taxonomy section
Some topics in plant biology are not covered in very much detail, such as ecology, genetics; much more expansive coverage of taxonomy is included
Gnetophytes are left out of the course completely
Images provided with each section are not always high quality.

Rating:

Strengths:

The material is presented logically, using an excellent site map
The visual material is exceptionally effective
The text is concise and most chapters are relatively short
Quizzes are included after most sections of the course
Each topic provides good examples or analogies to help the student understand the various topics.
Images are used regularly to supplement the text.
Microscope images are a good addition.

Concerns:

Has the feel and appearance of a textbook. Since the course likely has a textbook associated with it, the students may not be engaged by having a second textbook resource.
The material, from top left to bottom right, seems a little out of order and sequence.
Not much in the way of multimedia material.
Quizzes are limited to a few questions and repeating them does not provide additional practice.
No learning objectives, goals or student learning outcomes are stated
The material is fact heavy, but does not draw connections between major concepts, as is frequently done in commercially published texts these days

Rating:

Strengths:

Concerns:

The quizzes do not have back buttons at the end, so the user must hit the back button multiple times to return to the material
The layout is jumbled in places, and the text does not always successfully wrap around images

Other Issues and Comments:: This course was apparently created by a professor who is now emeritus and it appears the course has not been updated since 2002. This would explain the relatively simple format, the lack of more recent web 2.0 elements and the out of date systematics.
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