Nature Education, a division of scientific publisher Nature Publishing Group, UK, has announced the launch of Scitable (www.nature.com/scitable), a free, online educational resource for undergraduate biology students and educators. Currently focused on genetics, Scitable combines authoritative scientific information with social media functionality. Scitable is the first product launch from Nature Education to develop innovative education resources and tools for college science students and educators.
Scitable provides students with free online access to more than 180 overviews of key genetics concepts. The overviews are evidence-based and have been vetted by Nature Publishing Group staff. By connecting with other Scitable users via groups, chat functionality and other social media features, students can collaborate online with classmates, or with a wider community of experts, researchers and fellow students. The product is also intended as a teaching tool for faculty. Educators can set up public or private groups for their students, providing reading lists, course-packs of Scitable articles and group discussions. Scitable is flexible and easy to use, and can be incorporated into courseware services such as Blackboard. Nature Education introduced the Scitable beta site in October 2008 and invited faculty and students to provide feedback. Of the 31 faculty who beta-tested Scitable, 97 percent have stated that they would recommend it to other teaching faculty and 100 percent would recommend Scitable as a study resource to students.
Scitable currently contains content in the field of genetics, particularly chromosomes and cytogenetics, evolutionary genetics, gene expression and regulation, gene inheritance and transmission, genes and disease, genetics and society, genomics, nucleic acid structure and function, and population and quantitative genetics. Nature Education plan to expand the service to other subject areas in future.
