Provophys

Who is Provophys?

My name is Kevin V. Young, and I taught a physiology class to a group of bright future nurses in Provo, Utah in 2006. We created the first online physiology book for Wikibooks! I was new to editing wikis, as were my students, but I guess that is what makes wikis so great -- we can all participate, regardless of our level. Beginning in Feb 2007 I taught yet another group of bright future nurses and this time we improved upon the existing book with the goal of making it the BEST introductory physiology textbook. Update 2011--I have not used this textbook since then, so it has not improved nor has it become the very best book out there. . . lots of potential if someone feels ambitious.

Making a textbook was a bit overwhelming, so I switched to making wikis that were a bit easier. Using Wetpaint, my students and I have created a Physiwiki site (fall 2007), a Microbiowiki site (spring 2008), and an Anatowiki site (summer 2008). Update 2011: I changed jobs and do not teach Anatomy, Physiology, or Microbiology, so those wikis are dormant (though the anatowiki gets a lot of visitors). The excitement was mainly in the creation, but without a class of new students the content is not really changing (even though someone could improve it if they wanted).

Update November 2020: Wetpaint no longer exists, so all that work was lost, while Wikibooks remains. I am grateful to see positive changes have been made to this book over the years. I have returned to my old position of teaching for Utah State University, and beginning in 2021 I will evaluate using this book again, and making improvements to it.

If you have any suggestions or questions, please leave feedback on my discussion page (which I rarely check) or send me an email (kevin.young@usu.edu). I welcome any participation in the Human Physiology book or any other of my wikis, and believe that the more people use it and edit it, the better it will become. Provophys (talk)