Visible Body Courseware Project

Visible Body Course Development

Following my development of seven virtual labs for the company Visible Body, I was tasked by them to develop a sample two semester course for them to show other instructors as an example of how their materials would be used in a course. Following delivery of the first semester of the course, this changed, Visible Body decided they wanted me to develop a two-semester course for distribution citing that they loved my fun and innovative approach.

First, I created modules using their assets and several open source materials. These have quizzes (a mix of short answer, multiple choice, and virtual dissection) at the end of them to assess student learning. I added in several labs of my own creation. These were originally accompanied by my power points lectures, however there are issues with instructor powerpoints 1) they are pretty impossible for anyone else to use 2) we as instructors have a nasty habit of 'borrowing' copyrighted images from other sources. While discussing whether or not to adapt the lectures to be solely made with visible body resources, I informed them that I have never once used the slides that a publisher provided. In fact, I have always found those slides useless. We were at a loss for what to do. Then it came to me-- what about guided notes? Following a sample unit, we immediately they agreed that this was an excellent solution. The end result is a 2-semester course that has been distributed to (as of September 2018) over 50 institutions including Harvard.

An interview about it can be seen here. This was featured in an email that is sent to anyone that downloads instructional materials from Visible Body.

Their support letter about it can be found here.


Want to see it for yourself?-- go here: https://courseware.visiblebody.com/welcome

Use the email Cindy.Harley@metrostate.edu

Use the password: HarleyDossier

The sample courses present are the courses that I wrote which are distributed to all who chose to teach using this software.

A view from the second semester with the sensory unit expanded
VB email memo.pdf
A view of an email which advertises the course to anyone who downloads any of the instructional materials that are freely available for use with the visible body apps or who is on their email list as an instructor.

Sample Materials

Circulatory_system_unit_outline_2.0 (1)

Guided notes sample-- circulatory

In lieu of instructor powerpoints which Ive always found useless, instructors are given notes which they can use to guide their lecture creation and pass on to students. They are given editable word documents so they can customize as desired.
Urinary_system_unit_outline (2)

Guided notes sample-- urinary


Handout_-_Blood_vessel_flow_charts.pdf

Blood vessel flow chart

This is a handout which students can fill out as they use the anatomical models. Think of it like writing directions using a map only they are using the circulatory vessels instead of streets. A key is also available for instructors.
Lab_-_Measuring_Blood_pressure (1).pdf

Sample lab handout

This lab handout is given to instructors as an editable word document so they can customize it for their purposes. If you see students taking each other's blood pressure in the hallways of the SEC, this is why.

Learning objectives

Each item within a unit has paired learning objectives to aid instructor and student alike in understanding what they are to get out of the activity. This example is matched to the lab (left). These also match the syllabus learning objectives which are given for the whole course as well as each lesson.