Anatomy and Physiology 2e
I am comparing this open source textbook to another widely used, commercially available text. Compared to that, OpenStax Anatomy and Physiology is not quite as comprehensive. All major subject areas are covered (i.e. cells, bones, muscles, nervous system, etc.), but molecular details of many physiological processes are left out or poorly covered. There is more molecular & mechanistic detail in some chapters rather than others (or on some topics rather than others), perhaps reflecting the multiple authors of this book. All necessary broad A&P topics are covered though.
The content of this text is by and large accurate. Again, I'm comparing it to a widely used text from a highly reputable publisher. Yes, I have found a few errors in the OpenStax text. But I have also found similar numbers and types of errors in the commercially available text. I do not find the OpenStax text biased in any way that I have noticed.
I find the OpenStax Anatomy and Physiology text to have appropriate relevance and longevity. It is not written in such a way that would require major edits to update it. The text relates well to the current generation of users by providing lots of embedded links. However, not all of these links are still working. Perhaps removing web links in a future edition would increase longevity of the text. Textbox insets could easily be used to highlight applied concepts rather than web links.
Compared to the other commercially available text I have used, OpenStax Anatomy and Physiology is more accessible to my students (community college) because of its clarity. The book does not overuse jargon at all. My students find this to be very helpful and find the prose to be easy to read and comprehend.
I have not noted any problems with this text book's consistency.
This textbook's modularity is fine. The text is easily divided into units and chapters that can be grouped together appropriately for effective instruction and testing. The text is broken down with enough subheadings to give students breaks between topics while reading so the students do not get bogged down by the bulk and amount of material presented.
The organization and flow of this text is one of my complaints about it. Several of my colleagues have the same complaint. The other commercially available text that I have used for Anatomy and Physiology was organized better. For the overall text, I don't have a problem with the organization of the units/chapters, except for Unit 3: Regulation, Integration, and Control. Chapter 12-15 could be organized better in my opinion. Chapter 12 describes nervous tissue, Chapter 13 describes the anatomy of the nervous system, Chapter 14 describes the somatic nervous system, and Chapter 15 describes the autonomic nervous system. To me, this organization just doesn't make sense and confuses students. I have chosen to teach this material as "topics" rather than chapters, and have organized the information into (1) nervous tissue & physiology, (2) the brain, and (3) the spinal cord. I think it is much more effective to structure the material this way for my students. On a separate note, I also find problems with the organization of material within each chapter in this textbook. The flow of information is often off and better reorganized and presented in a different way.
As previously mentioned, the text contains old web links that are no longer active. I have not noted any distortion of images on different devices, but I have noted that images are not available in high enough resolution for adding edits or enlarging in PowerPoint.
I have noted the occasional grammatical error, but nothing more than any other published text.
I did not find any issues with this text book's cultural relevance, although to be honest, I was not reading it with a keen eye for cultural relevance but more for course content.
There is another major issue that I had with this text that was not previously covered in this review form: the text book's images (both the amount of images and their quality). Compared with the other commercially available text I have used, the images in OpenStax Anatomy and Physiology are not adequate for effective instruction. First, there are simply not enough images to adequately convey difficult topics to students. For every one image in OpenStax A&P, I feel like we need about 5 more (at least). Second, the quality of the images that are available is lacking. Many are not detailed enough to provide students with adequate information for studying. Also, for instructional purposes, the images are not of high enough resolution for optimal use within PowerPoint.