The highly interactive program is designed to teach the basic
physiology of the heart and is designed to complement and
accompany a similar program (The Circulation.) covering the
physiology of the circulatory vessels. It is divided into
several sections accessed from a menu:
Introduction: - structure and function of the cardiovascular
system;
The Heart:
-
gross structure - chambers and major blood vessels, the
wall of the heart and the pericardium;
-
heart valves - structure and function of atrioventricular
and semi-lunar valves;
-
histology - cardiac muscle and pacemaker cells;
-
excitation - spread of depolarization and the ECG;
-
heart sounds
-
the cardiac cycle - pressure and volume changes;
-
cardiac output - control by autonomic nerves, hormones
and autoregulation.
High quality colour graphics are used extensively throughout
the program and features such as animation and a Hypertext
facility are used to enhance student learning. The program
is highly interactive and uses several features to promote
this. For example students are required to:
a) label diagrams by "dragging" labels from a list
and "dropping" them into the box corresponding to
the correct position on the diagram;
b) interpret recordings of pacemaker cell action potentials
to better understand the effect of autonomic nerves on heart
rate.
In addition they must answer a variety of questions included
in each section. These may be multiple choice, selecting correct
phrases from a list to complete a statement, and true/false
questions with feedback. |