Autonomic Nervous System Tutor

© 1988, 1998
Thomas F. Fletcher, DVM, Ph.D
College of Veterinary Medicine
University of Minnesota
St.Paul, MN 55108

Contents:
         Purpose
         Features
         Student Evaluations
         Platform requirements
         Download instructions

 

Purpose:
      Autonomic Nervous System Tutor 2.2 is independent study courseware intended to help students learn autonomic nervous system neuroanatomy, including the ability to trace autonomic pathways to canine visceral organs. It is a HyperCard stand-alone application (Mac platform). The courseware was designed for first-year veterinary students studying Gross Anatomy. The courseware should be useful for other students who wish to review autonomic innervation.

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Features:
      Autonomic Nervous System Tutor 2.2 presents the organization and neuroanatomy of the canine autonomic nervous system and offers students practice in tracing autonomic pathways to various organs. It has two sections:

Tutorial Section:

This has three parts:

  1. General Features
  2. Sympathetic Pathways and
  3. Parasympathetic Pathways.

Each part is concluded by an optional multiple-choice quiz.

Each screen of the tutorial raises a question and uses text and graphics to answer the question. Some information is covered by buttons that disappear when clicked — the purpose of which is to encourage students to think about answers instead of merely reading them. Most screens have another button that reveals additional information related to the screen topic.

The tutorial offers students two optional means of obtaining feedback about their knowledge of the subject. One is the percent correct answers on multiple choice quizzes. The other involves self-assessment of personal knowledge about information presented on each screen. Upon quitting, both the self-evaluations and quiz scores are summarized as cumulative means.

Pathway Drill Section:

The Drill section, which allows students to trace autonomic pathways to different organs in the body at their own pace as often as they wish, is ideal for learning, confirming and reinforcing anatomical knowledge.

Students are required to trace pathways efficiently, by first identifying the pathway origin for a given target, then the synaptic location (ganglion) for the selected target organ and finally filling-in the correct names of nerves between these "mileposts". As the pathway is being traced it is listed on the screen and a "?" shows where the next choice should fit. Choices are scored and they total 100% when the pathway is correctly identified. Over 70 pathways to 36 representative organs can be traced as a drill exercise and then depicted graphically.

After tracing a pathway or aborting a trace, the student can see a graphic depiction of the correct pathway. Thus the Drill Section can be used to look-up correct pathways.


Contents

Student Evaluations:

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Platform Requirements:

      Autonomic Nervous System Tutor 2.2 is a HyperCard stand-alone application. Minimal requirements are a Macintosh computer with a 9-in. black & white screen and 2 MB of RAM available to run the application. Disc size is 2.6 MB.

Download Instructions:

      A Macintosh computer is required to run Autonomic Nervous System Tutor 2.2. When you click "Download Now" (below), a 1.2 MB compressed, self-extracting, binary file "Autonomic Nervous System Tutor 2.2.sea" will be transmitted to the location on your hard disk where your browser downloads files. Double-click the downloaded file icon to extract a 2.6 MB file "Autonomic Nervous System Tutor 2.2" (your browser may extract this file automatically). Double-click "Autonomic Nervous System Tutor 2.2" to view the courseware. (You can trash "Autonomic Nervous System Tutor 2.2.sea" to conserve disk space.) Download Now

Autonomic Nervous System Tutor courseware is free of charge for educational use.

Contents

Gross Anatomy        Microanatomy       Developmental Anatomy

Neuroanatomy                   Radiographic Anatomy

Courseware      Go Top