Peer Review

iBiology

Material Detail page

Reviewed:: Mar 10, 2025 by Biology

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Ratings

Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:

iBiology’s mission is to convey, in the form of open-access free videos, the excitement of modern biology and the process by which scientific discoveries are made. Our aim is to let you meet the leading scientists in biology, so that you can find out how they think about scientific questions and conduct their research, and can get a sense of their personalities, opinions, and perspectives. We also seek to support educators who want to incorporate materials that illustrate the process and practice of science into their curriculum. This project is made possible by the good will of many biologists who are committed to making their work broadly accessible and to conveying the excitement of biology to a worldwide audience. iBiology.org (formerly ibioseminars.org and ibiomagazine.org) was developed to bring the best biology to people throughout the world for free. Started in 2006 by University of California – San Francisco and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, Professor Ron Vale, iBiology has grown to include over 300 seminars and short talks by the world’s leading scientists. Our collection includes talks by many Nobel Laureates and members of the United States National Academy of Sciences. In 2013, we released our first full-length course in Light Microscopy and expanded the educational resources we offer. iBiology is funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and supported by the American Society for Cell Biology and the University of California, San Francisco.

Type of Material:

Collection or Learning Object Repository

Recommended Uses:

Educators can use the resources designed for them to create new curricula, enhance existing curricula, and/or add to course testing and activity materials.
Students can use the resources designed for them to enhance learning specific biological concepts, find related citation materials for further research, and learn general priniciples of scientific inquiry and research methods.
Can be used in or out-of-class.

Technical Requirements:

Web browser with a current version of one of the following: Chrome, Firefox, Edge, or Safari. Open edX platform works best with current versions of Chrome, Firefox, Edge or Safari.

Identify Major Learning Goals:

From the author's: "Our aim is to let you meet the leading scientists in biology, so that you can find out how they think about scientific questions and conduct their research, and can get a sense of their personalities, opinions, and perspectives. We also seek to support educators who want to incorporate materials that illustrate the process and practice of science into their curriculum."Overall, iBiology's materials emphasize the following goals:

Increase communication skills
Spark inquiry and curiosity for scientific discovery
Highlight the roles and responsibilities of scientists
Demonstrate how good science is performed

Target Student Population:

High School, College General Ed, College Lower Division, College Upper Division, Graduate School, Post-Graduate, and Professional

Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:

Computer, internet connection, and web browser

Some background in biology is essential for some resources.

Content Quality

Rating:

Strengths:

Information created by scientists, accurate and current. The site showcases prominent scientists talking about science.
Content provides citations for further readings and supportive evidence.
The site provides high quality whole courses for professional scientists and has resources to facilitate scientific careers.
Innovative content that ties common life experiences (e.g. baseball) to scientific concepts (e.g. statistics and genetics)
The site has a diversity of scientists, which can be used to introduce DEI content into a class.
Educators who use the flipped classroom material, educator resources, or videos can be sure they are the highest quality and the most current thinking in those topics.

Concerns:

The coverage is not nearly comprehensive yet.
Not enough basic biology content videos.
No career content for high school level students.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:

Strengths:

Educator resources include: flipped classroom curricula with videos, lecture notes, keywords, review questions, classroom discussion questions, and recommended citations. Worksheets, problem sets, and other educator resources are provided for some materials.
Science teaching techniques provided in story-telling video format.
Videos range in length from a few minutes to half-hour or more.
Materials can be searched by user, by duration and by subtitle language. Search results bring up materials for each audience type.
The site provides individual short and long videos on biology topics as well as whole courses, resources for flipped courses, and seminars.
Since many of the topics are presented by leading scientists, the effectiveness is high.
Whole courses or comprehensive modules are provided on some topics.
Science identity, equity, diversity, and inclusion can be taught using this resource.
Many of the resources have additional reading lists.
Animations and videos are high quality and produced by filmmakers.
iBiology courses provide mentorship, career and professional development for graduate student and early career scientists.
Content provided in a cinematic film, personal storytelling format.

Concerns:

No educator resources for high school teachers.
No learning objectives provided.
Answers to some question banks open and not restricted to educators.

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:

Strengths:

Videos are offered in low and high resolution formats.
Resources are separated into three sections - lectures, courses, and science communication lab.
Users can use a drop-down menu to select lectures for some audience levels.
Videos are embedded in website, no need to link to outside sources. Videos can be watched on YouTube as well as on iBiology.
The videos, courses, and seminars are searchable in a variety of ways.
The explorer function allows advanced searching with filters.
The videos appare to have closed captioning and transcripts are available for 508 compliance.

Concerns:

Icons used to describe intended audience are not intuitive.
It is not easy to find icon rubrics.
Selection of audience for lectures does not allow differentiation between material appropriate for high school level versus upper level undergrad/graduate level.
The site overall is not intuitive, and although several search options are available, as well as full lists, it is difficult to get a sense of the extent and range of the site.

Other Issues and Comments:: None.
Creative Commons: