Lion Den Anatomy Lesson

One of the things about the new Lion Den site is that playful illustration you see at the top of the home page.

I call it Lion Den Anatomy Lesson and it's the creation of renowned illustrator Joe Kulka.

I first became aware of Joe's work when he did a series of small portraits of important scientists for one of my textbooks. Then he created some whimsical and engaging covers for the two editions of my book Survival Guide for Anatomy & Physiology.

Even if you haven't heard of Joe before, or haven't seen those Survival Guide book covers, you've probably seen his illustrations.  He's an award-winning children's book author and has created illustrations for many popular publishers, books, and projects. For example, you've seen Smokey Bear and Woodsy Owl, right?

When I recently undertook the complete rebuilding of the Lion Den website, with it's refocusing on the learning and teaching of human anatomy and physiology, I knew I needed a dramatic illustration to serve as the "first impression" for visitors. It dawned on me that Joe's Survival Guide book covers are not only visually appealing, but also tell a story in a playful way. And that playful tone is exactly what I want to project in the Lion Den website.

So I asked Joe if he could find some time in his busy schedule to create an image for my website. And he did!

I love the story Lion Den Anatomy Lesson tells. It shows a lion teaching an anatomy lesson. But if you look closely, you'll see that the labels on the muscle chart list meals—not muscle names. It's a playful take on the role of lions as predators. But in doing so, ties the "lion" identity of the website to it's "anatomy" content. Notice also that the lion "student" on the left, the one licking his lips in anticipation of a meal, reflects the lion featured in the Lion Den website's logo photograph.

I love the Lion Den Anatomy Lesson—I hope you enjoy it, too!


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The Lion Tamers Behind Lion Den's New Platform

How are you liking the new look and functionality of Lion Den? As Lion Den's creator, I'm thrilled with it.

As some of you know, I started Lion Den as a "personal" website many, many years ago—before most colleges had a website (not to mention a learning management system). My college was just getting their website up and running and I wanted to post news items for my students, class notes and other resources, and general study tips and tools to help my students succeed. But my college wanted a "public relations website" not a teaching-learning tool. Not willing to wait for them to come around to my way of thinking, I simply started my own website.

There are many advantages to having a website entirely under one's control as a professor. I've nearly always had a mix of part-time and full-time appointments, so it's an easy way to post common resources that all my students can use. I'm not at the whims of sudden and tightly scheduled changes to institutional platforms just at a time when I'm already overloaded with academic work. And I can be more entrepreneurial.

But there are downsides, too. I had to learn some tech stuff I didn't know. I love learning new things and taking on new challenges. So although it was work, I enjoyed it. But another downside—a big one—is that I had to be my own IT team.

Lucky for me, I eventually found a reliable web host that provides great support at a reasonable price—1and1.com. That helps a lot.

But the real work comes in setting up a website and maintaining it. As web technology has changed over the years, there have been a couple of times I've had to completely reconstruct my website in a new platform. That's a double load because I'm having to learn the new platform at the same time as I'm rebuilding it.

Recently, it became clear that I had to once again rebuild Lion Den. Students and teachers using it could not easily navigate, or even see, some of the resources on mobile devices. There were other issues, too.

But I'm very busy right now with teaching and textbook revising, not to mention family, so I decided to look for outside help. That's when I ran across S4support—a division of NeoSoft.

They have an outsourcing system that can scale from huge companies right down to little old me. And their prices scale right along with it. In their system, they match you to the IT professional that you need and you pay a reasonable hourly rate for their services.

I had some hesitation, I will admit. I wasn't sure I could speak "tech" with someone who is an expert. And besides needing someone to roll up their sleeves and do the rebuild, I also needed a mentor who could prepare me for maintaining the rebuild website.

But I wasn't disappointed. I was assigned a very amiable and talented programmer, Rajendar, who was perfect for me. Besides all the heavy lifting of reformulating all my content for a new, more modern and flexible, platform (Wordpress), he also contributed some brilliant ideas about rethinking some of the design and functionality of my website.

When the task was done, it was done. There has been no pressure to continue working with them. The agreement I signed is open-ended—I can rehire them for chunks of time only when I need them. I probably will at some point. When I want to try something new that I can't handle on my own. If something breaks badly. Or if I want build or rebuild another website or blog. No pressure—just willingness, if I should need them again.

If you have a website or blog or anything like that, and want your own affordable "IT department" to get you started or bail you out of a mess, then I recommend S4support enthusiastically.


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Organization of Anatomy & Physiology Content

In the newly updated Lion Den website, you'll quickly notice that I've reorganized how the content of the anatomy and physiology material is "packaged" for the website.

Although the individual pages remain pretty much intact in terms of their content—while at the same time sporting a new sleeker design—the way they are grouped in the navigation tools has changed.

First, there is a clear distinction between the LEARNING content and the TEACHING content.

Next, the content outlines are organized as one whole set, rather than the former A&P 1 and A&P 2 distinctions. They are just Learning Outlines, listed one after the other.

However, nested within the list of outlines is a mini-set of Pre-A&P Review Outlines. These go with my Pre-A&P course, but are useful to any A&P student to review before taking A&P.  Or they can be used to refresh yourself as you begin your A&P course.

I'm still clearing out old references to the A&P 1 / A&P 2 distinction—but eventually, that will all be gone.  Simply look for the topic you need without the 1/2 distraction that may not exactly fit the course you are taking.

The organization of the various Learning Tips and Tools remains pretty close to what it was in the old Lion Den.

Take a few minutes to hover over the various elements of the top navigation bar to see where it's all located. You may even stumble upon some hidden treasure that could help you out!

Bottom photo: Tbuckley89

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The New Lion Den Is Here!

The new version of the Lion Den website just rolled out, and I'm pretty excited about it.

Because I needed to change to a platform that is friendly to more types of devices, particularly small screen devices, I went all out and upgraded to a more sophisticated system. This system allows me to add features that were not possible before—given my limited range of coding skills.

I hired a professional web development team to make the conversion. Along the way, we made quite a few design changes to make the site more user friendly. And easier to navigate.

You will also notice that the content now focuses entirely on learning and teaching human anatomy and physiology. This alone makes the Lion Den easier to navigate.

My friends, given the nature of how these roll-outs go, there are bound to be some hiccups. So please have patience. And more importantly, please contact me with detailed reports of glitches so that I can fix them!

I'll be pointing out special features of the new Lion Den over my next few posts. And I'll be sharing new features and functionalities as I implement them.

If you want to stay posted on these developments, be sure to sign up for the free email newsletter, which delivers new postings right to your inbox. And while you're at it, consider subscribing to my other newsletters, too! Subscribe here.

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The Lions Are Getting Ready to Migrate!

Lion taming is a lot of work. Especially when you are training them for all new behaviors AND moving them to a newly built home!

That's what's going on right now in the Lion Den. We are developing a new website platform.  It's still a little while until the lions are ready to move in to their new digs, but here's a preview of what to expect:

• The same reliable and useful content for learning (and teaching) human anatomy and physiology
• A streamlined set of resources that focus entirely on human structure and function, with all the "old" travel and circus content out of the way.
• A whole new, updated look.  But the lions will still look like lions. Check out the updated logo above.
• An updated, modern flexible format that will be easy to use. Even on mobile devices!
• All the helpful "extra" features that help you use the content. And a few new ones.

For now, it's pretty much the same old Lion Den. I just didn't want you to be surprised when you enter some time in the future and wonder what amazing adventure you've just landed in!

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Updated Teaching Resources and RSS feeds

Today the pages focused on resources for A&P teachers were updated. Links to these pages can be found at lionden.com/ap_teacher_resource.htm

Also updated are the RSS feeds that are found near the bottom of most anatomy & physiology related pages.  The posts from feeds now shows up in a different format that is more compatible with the overall design of the Lion Den website.

The feeds are also categorized as "for A&P students" or "for A&P teachers" to better focus the user.  Teacher-related content appears only on pages that are specifically directed to teachers.  Student-related content appears on all A&P-related pages.

The change in feeds also represents a move to a different feed aggregator than used previously. Read More!

New icons, updated course materials, new Moodle help

I've recently updated several things in the Lion Den:

Need a new computer?

All course syllabi and related course materials have now been updated for the Fall 2011 semester.

The icon for Power-Point compatible slides has been updated.

A new icon for sound files, podcasts, or any other audio has been added.

Both new icons now appear on the Kinda Smart page and in the Key available in the top menu bar of any outline page.

New audio icon

New slide icon

I've added a link to an NPR story on the impact of culture on science research to the History & Culture Mini Lesson.

I've added new Moodle Help page on how to get all the questions from a previously taken test, quiz, or Check In to appear so you can print them out.

I've added links to the new Moodle Help page in the top menu bar. Read More!

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Floating bar & feedback form removed

Today, I'm removing two features of lionden.com that many users found to be annoying.  And none of us want the Lion Den to be annoying.  Well, except for the smell . . . but there's nothing to be done about that, eh?

The menu bar at the top of each page was originally set to float along and stay at the top of the browser window, even as you scroll down the page.  Unfortunately, many users have slower systems that caused the floating bar to float in the middle of the page for a few moments after scrolling down, then back up again.  So I reset this feature to stay at the top of the page.  If you want to access another page in the Lion Den, you'll now have to scroll all the way up to the top of the page.  But you can do it . . . I know you can!

I was also using a third-party service to solicit feedback (like how annoying the floating menu bar is).  But because it occasionally asks viewers to respond, and many users are FREQUENT users, you were getting tired of either giving feedback or telling the popup feedback request to go away.  So from now on, please give feedback by using the email response link found in several places in each page in the Lion Den. Read More!

Lion Tracks breadcrumbs . . . the saga begins

Ok, finally . . . I'm starting to leave a trail of breadcrumbs.  Well, that's what ORDINARY webmasters call this navigation tools that shows where a page is in the heirarchy of organization within a website.  In the Lion Den, however, it's no wonder that this navigation tool is instead called Lion Tracks. 

Found at the top of all pages at lionden.com, the Lion Tracks tool is not yet complete on all pages.  I've started with the A&P 2 pages . . . from there, I'll finish the remaining A&P pages . . . then eventually the whole site. Read More!

Nervous System Part 1 live

Today I uploaded the complete, formatted version of the Nervous System Part 1 outline for A&P 1.

Other updates this weekend:

• Nervous System Overview formatted and updated
• WebCT 18 updated today, further clarifying gradebook issues
  
• Blog newsfeed added to Hot Tips drop-down box in the right sidebar of all pages
  

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