Peer Review

Bioinformatics and Molecular Biology

Material Detail page

Reviewed:: Mar 15, 2019 by Biology

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Ratings

Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:

This extensive site contains background materials, instructions, and links that
allow an upper division undergraduate level molecular biology or bioinformatics
student to work with data. These include tools to analyze DNA and protein
sequences, and links to molecular models. The site also provides lecture
materials and assignments (with answers).

Type of Material:

collection containing tutorial, assignments, animation, lecture presentations

Recommended Uses:

This can be used as a guide to internet resources for students
Instructors may wish to adapt assignments with their own sample sequences

Labs, homework, projects, research.

Technical Requirements:

Various software, including Chime, Protein Explorer, WebMol, Java for viewing molecular models, Quicktime or Shockwave for animations

Identify Major Learning Goals:

Students should be able to access and use internet resources in molecular biology and bioinformatics understand the biological background and theory of bioinformatics

Target Student Population:

Undergraduate students in upper division molecular biology and/or bioinformatics

Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:

Strong comprehension of molecular biology is necessary to use the software and databases.

Content Quality

Rating:

Strengths:

Covers many areas and a wide array of manipulations relevant to of bioinformatics
Presents material accurately
Has nice and relative simple explanations of some topics
Several nice animations of DNA replication, translation are included

Concerns:

This site does not appear to have been updated recently
Many recent resources are not included
This collection would need to be well coordinated with a class for the most students because of the vast amount of terminology associated with the field and the complexity of the linked sites

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:

Strengths:

The site is quite comprehensive
Provides application of theory to practice using professional databases
The collection provides a diversity of resources

Concerns:

This site does not appear to have been updated since 2003
Many of the links are dead
Many of the resources are outdated and have been superseded

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:

Strengths:

The site is well organized
The site has an extensive menu bar
The site includes buttons and text links to all sites

Concerns:

The website design is antiquated
The "current level"/"previous level" headings are difficult to follow
Navigation is somewhat hard as the site lacks location features of current websites
The user may have to navigate a bit within some categories or when leaving the site through links to the internet

Other Issues and Comments:: This website is a great idea, but to be useful would need to be seriously updated both in terms of content and web design.
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