Welcome to the home page for lecture material for Genetics Online. The lecture material for Biol 301 is housed at a different site than the organizational site for Biol 301 (the 'eCollege' site) that you just came from, so you'll notice a slightly different format to the pages. Don't let this concern you - there are instructions below to help you learn to find your way around this site. Because this site contains only the lecture material, there are no direct links to other course activities such as the Threaded Discussions, Webliography, or tests. You'll need to return to the eCollege site to partake in any of those activities (instructions for doing this are found below). Navigating this Website Although the material in this website is organized and presented in a linear manner, and you will be tested on topics in a linear order (see the syllabus), the website is organized to allow you to follow your curiosity. This section will show you how to use the basic tools to navigate around the various pages that comprise this course. The Topic List This course is organized into a series of modules, with each module covering a particular topic. The list of module topics is found in the frame on the left side of your screen. This list can be used to take you to any module at any time; just click on the topic title. Navigating Within Modules The topic list will take you to the first page of a module. Each module consists of more than one page, however. To allow you to navigate the pages within a module, the bottom of each page of every module has a "navigation bar", which allows you to access any page in the module. To go from the first page to the second page (and so on) in a module, simply click on 'Next'. To back up one page in a module, just click on 'Back'. To jump to a page that is neither the next or previous direct page, just click on the number of the page that you wish to see. For example, if you are on page 4 of a module, and you wish to go to page 2, simply click on the '2' at the bottom of the page. Navigating Between Modules Apart from using the topic list, it is possible to move from one module to another. At appropriate points in each module (where the material dictates), there will be links to take you to related topics in other modules (these links will be self-indicating). In this way, you can learn about related material by following a line of interest instead of taking the obvious linear route. By doing so, you may wind up in parts of the course where you find unfamiliar terms, because you haven't yet seen the module(s) where those terms were introduced. To help you in such situations, there is a glossary that defines many genetic terms. Most of these terms, when they are used in the text of the modules, are linked directly to their definition in the glossary. To go back to the module from the glossary, just use the Back button on your browser. You can also get to the glossary directly, by using the link at the top of the topic list on the left side of the screen. This is a good way to learn, too, because there are links between terms within the glossary. This allows you to jump around within the glossary, putting together related terms in a conceptual framework. Returning to eCollege When you are done with a module, if you wish to return to the eCollege Biol 301 page (to do threaded discussion question or other activity, for example), simply use the 'Go' or 'Recent' menu in your browser to find the site you want and return to it. (This, of course, presumes that you came to this site from the eCollege site in the first place.) This site © Robert S. Winning, 2006