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| Main | Course Info | Schedule | Exam Info | Contact Info | FAQ | What's New? | THE HUMAN BODY: FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS |
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| 1. How is the course organized? Around principles and concepts! Let's take a broad look at the course organization. Anatomy 401 is organized around five major informational blocks, each of which covers the major anatomical systems, their structure, and functioning. The coverage within each block follows a general sequence of embryology, gross anatomy, and histology. In addition, the anatomy presented in this course draws heavily on how the various cells, tissues, organs, and systems function. Every attempt will be made to build current hypotheses and understandings of structure and function on a base of our classical understandings of the human body before and after birth. 2. Can I make it by just attending lectures? Probably could but may be difficult! Why? Within each of these five content blocks is a series of lectures having specific emphases. Each lecture will be designed to assist you on how to manage and understand fundamental concepts and principles. Using these concepts and principles, select amounts of details will be brought into the picture to make the concepts and principles meaningful to you and give you good opportunity to retain the detailed information presented. Given the limited amount of time available for lectures, lectures can only focus on those concepts, principles, and details which have proven to be most complex or which have been troublesome for students in the past. The lecturer will not be expected to cover all the keywords, key concepts, and readings which you are expected to know. Understanding those keywords and key concepts that are not covered in lecture shall be the responsibility of the students. 3. What are the best ways to use the text effectively? Use it regularly! Every attempt will be made to correlate lecture coverage with a specific reading assignment in Tortora's (9th) PRINCIPLES OF HUMAN ANATOMY. In some cases, the text readings will include illustrative materials and charts which you should skim over to gain a general outlook of the day's topics. The faculty will make every attempt to stay on schedule. Assigned readings from the text are essential and must be dealt in a timely way as the lecture schedule progresses. Clearly, the level and quantity of information covered in this course does not lend itself to "crammed" readings on weekends or just before an examination. Readings from the text alone, along with coming to lecture regularly, has been a most successful learning strategy. In other words, a "high payoff! As you will see, the day-by-day reading assignments are linked with your day-by-day lectures. At times, the lecturer may modify a reading assignment if warranted. At times, the lecturer may even take issue with something written in the textbook. If you have a question or concern about the reading assignments, please don't hesitate to let the lecturer know as soon as possible after the lecture. You will have ample opportunity to conference with your faculty. Don't stockpile your concerns or questions! It important that you do not forget or set aside the many excellent learning strategies presented in the text itself. Reading the text's preface, as mentioned above, is a must and should provide you with a meaningful entry into the course. Especially outstanding in this particular text is the inclusion of (1) learning objectives for each chapter, (2) a clear outline for each chapter, and, (3) at the end of each chapter, the inclusion of a study outline, review questions and a self-quizzes. Take advantage of all of the learning strategies featured in the text! 4. How have previous students learned effectively ? In three important ways! One successful learning strategy found useful by students includes (1) the previewing of text information before coming to class; previewing means having a general familiarity of words and topics to be covered on a given day. You can do this by scanning the appropriate text pages so that you don't come to the lecture "cold". (2) the actual viewing and hearing information discussed in the lecture itself; it is in the lecture where you will see and hear details important for this course highlighted and explained; and, (3) the careful review of your class notes along with going back to your text for more in-depth readings. So, remember the learning strategy: preview>view>review. 5. How can I best use the faculty to my learning advantage? Take the initiative! Simply put, your tuition dollar calls for the faculty to provide appropriate services to you as you proceed through the course! There are a number of ways the faculty can assist you provided you---the student---takes the initiative: each lecturer looks forward to "q & a" interactions at appropriate times during a lecture. Many times, such welcomed student-faculty interactions will continue even after the lecture ends; (2) each of the course faculty can be contacted using the university's electronic mail system; (3) each of the course faculty will have announced office hours for student consultation, and, when those hours are not convenient for you, other office hours can be individually arranged. You should feel free to consult the course faculty whenever difficulties arise and not just a day or so before and after an examination. There have been times even when such student-faculty interactions have expanded into research projects of the student's own interests. The human body represents a myriad of many structures and complex functions. In Anatomy 401, the understanding of the human body calls for a set of shared responsibilities such as effective teaching strategies used by the faculty and productive learning strategies used by the student. Do not stockpile all of your questions or concerns for the day or night before major exams. 6. Will there be course examinations? Of course! There will be three major examinations in the course---two interim examinations and a final examination. Final grades will be based on the weighted performances on each of your three major examinations, 20%, 20%, and 40%, respectively. The remaining 20% will be allocated to quizzes. Computer-scored examinations may include a combination of simple multiple-choice and true/false formats, and generally consist of one hundred items each. Each of the two interim examinations is scheduled after one or several topic units are completed. Your first examination is scheduled for Monday, October 9 (10:10-Noon). It will cover information from lectures, assigned readings, or special presentations from the first day of class through October 6th. The second examination is scheduled for Monday, November 13th (10:10-Noon) and will generally cover content new since the first examination. However, whenever pertinent, examination 2 can cover fundamental principles and concepts from the earlier course units and first examination as well. The third, or final examination, is scheduled by the University Final Examination Committee (following special exam code "H") for Friday, December 15th (10:30-12:30). The final examination will have two sections. One section will cover content new since the second exam. The second section of the final examination will be cumulative in nature and will cover content from the first two major blocks of the course which may or may not have been tested on the first two examinations. 7. What if I have to miss an examination for an emergency? Gain approval before exam is given! Students are expected to take each of the three regularly scheduled exams. In rare instances, alternate exams, however, may be allowed provided that the student presents, before the time of the scheduled examination, documentation of the urgency (usually medical or other emergency reasons) for the requested absence from a scheduled examination. If approved, an alternate examination will usually be scheduled for the student's first day back in classes. While they may be approved, alternate exams may or may not be similar in format as the scheduled exam. 8. How can I keep tabs on my course performance? Easily done! Performances on each of the exams will be posted in the course bulletin board or on our course web page by student exam number (and not by student name). Usually there will be (1) an exam histogram showing the distribution of performances for the entire class; (2) a listing of individual student performances shown by student exam numbers; and (3) beyond exam 1, cumulative exam performance information will be posted. As mentioned above, your final course grade will be a composite of weighted percentage correct scores attained on each of the three major examinations and the quizzes. Exams 1 and 2 will weigh 20% each ( and represent 40% of your final grade). The final examination will make up 40% of your final grade. It has not been the practice of Anatomy 401 to use a curve in the determination of final grades. 9. How will my final course grade be determined? Straight-forward and by the numbers! In setting your goals, the likely cutoffs for the determination of final grades will be: 90-100= A range; 80-89= B range; 70-79=C range; 65-69=D range; and 64-0=E. A final letter grade may be modified by a plus or minus depending on the level of the overall performance on the three examinations. 10. Will I have opportunity to evaluate the course and faculty? Absolutely! The future takers of Anatomy 401 depend heavily on the thoughtful critique and comments you offer. Much of the design of Anatomy 401 has evolved from what students like and dislike. And, this is the way it should be! With this in mind, you will have opportunity near the end of the course to provide a critique of the course a each faculty. The evaluations are designed and analyzed by the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching. The analyses are returned to the Department of Anatomy & Cell Biology well after the final grades are submitted to the registrar's office. The attached CRLT questionnaire should give you an idea of the kinds of questions asked in the past. Keep in mind, however, that you certainly don't need to wait until the end of the course to offer constructive ideas and comments on the course. Your constructive comments and suggestions are welcomed at any time! |
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