Explanimated Textbook

The Explanimated Textbook

Date

Fall 2016

What I did

Content Design
Illustration
Animation
Interactivity (Hype & iBooks Author)

The Situation

For my master's thesis, I sought to create a learning tool for students taking anatomy and physiology courses. Based on my conversations with students, research on available learning tools, and experience taking these courses, I realized that perhaps the aspect of learning anatomy and physiology that seemed to need the most improvement, or modernization, was textbooks. To high school and college students, textbooks tend to have a negative connotation of being boring or tedious and therefore often get underutilized.

The Solution

I created three different concepts in the form of an iBook. It was designed for a student seeing the material for the first or second time, since this is typically the role of the textbook, but is something that's lacking in apps students may try to use as a textbook replacement. I also incorporated study tools, such as quizzing, that students and educational researchers both agree aid in the learning process. The Explanimated Textbook explores how a modern animated and interactive revamp of the traditional textbook can enhance learning.

Tablet screen showing an infographic titled 'Skeletal Muscle Contraction' with explanatory text, a myogram graph, and illustrations of a muscle arm, muscle fiber cell, myofibril, and myofilaments with scale bars.

This is the first page of the section on skeletal muscle contraction. It shows what is happening at different levels of magnification during a muscle contraction. By seeing each level on the same page, learners can "connect the dots" and get a more comprehensive understanding of the material.

Diagram of neuromuscular junction showing axon of motor neuron with myelin sheath, axon terminal, neuromuscular junction, and myofibril, displayed on a tablet screen.

This page demonstrates how a nerve signals to a muscle to contract.

In iBooks, the dotted line boxes can be tapped to zoom into that area. Terms in blue can be tapped to access the definition in the glossary (not pictured).

Diagram illustrating excitation-contraction coupling in muscle cells, showing sarcolemma, axon terminal, synaptic vesicle, synaptic cleft, sarcoplasmic reticulum, terminal cisternae, and transverse tubule with calcium and acetylcholine labels.

Zooming further in to the microscopic components of a muscle, this page shows how a muscle unit contracts.

All of the labels can be hidden and revealed by tapping on the label line or by using the buttons in the lower left corner. This feature is designed as a study tool for learners to quiz themselves on the anatomical terms.

Diagram of a long bone on a tablet screen showing labeled parts: spongy bone, compact bone, bone marrow, articular cartilage, periosteum, endosteum, vein, and artery.

Diagram of a bone cross section showing arteries, veins, nerves, perforating canal, osteon, and central canal labeled in the bone structure.

Diagram of osteocytes showing capillaries, osteocytes, lacuna, and canaliculi cells on a digital tablet screen.

Diagram on a tablet showing gap junctions connecting osteocytes with labeled proteins and molecules like oxygen, carbon dioxide, and nutrients crossing membranes.

Your bones need oxygen and nutrients just like the rest of your body. But how do oxygen and nutrients get inside something as compact as a bone? These pages explain this phenomenon. Each page shows the anatatomical structures at progressively microscopic levels so students can visualize and comprehend how it works.

Animated diagram showing blood flow through the heart and body, with oxygenated blood in red flowing from the left ventricle through the body and deoxygenated blood in blue returning via the vena cava to the right atrium, cycling through lungs and heart valves.

In iBooks, the learner can drag the wheel with their finger to highlight the path of blood through the body at their own pace.