Course overview

Let us start with some introductions, I’m Dr. Terry Gleave, a Senior Lecturer in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Liverpool and the Lead Educator for this course, and it is my pleasure to welcome you to this short course on Physiology. For this running of the course, we will also be joined by Dr. Sean Goodman, a Lecturer in the School of Life Sciences at University of Liverpool. The course is designed to highlight the importance of Physiology as a life science and encourage interest to study the subject further. Whilst primarily aimed at 16-19 year-old students studying A-Levels (or equivalent) who are considering studying a physiology or physiology-related degree at University, this course will be of general interest to anyone wanting to learn a little more about the human body. Over the next three weeks of this course, we will be focusing on three of the key human physiological systems; the Respiratory System; the Cardiovascular System; and the Nervous System. I believe getting to know the basics in these areas will really help you to advance any further study you might want to undertake in this area. We hope that you immerse yourself in the content and engage with the discussion forums available in each of the weeks’ activities. This could be to talk about your own interests or experiences within a specific topic, introduce related issues, ask questions, and even help each other out. Although we won’t be able to answer every question directly, we will respond to common areas of inquiry and themes as the course proceeds. However, we’d really like to see you engage with the discussion boards to develop themes, introduce related issues, ask questions, and to help each other out if you find anything particularly tricky. We won’t be able to join all of the discussions for this running of the course, or respond to every individual comment, but the course encourages a strong learning community. The learning is focused around debate and discussion – supporting other learners, sharing your own experience and knowledge, and listening to new perspectives. We hope that you will enjoy interacting with and learning from each other in this way. Please let us know your motivations for signing up for this course by completing FutureLearn’s short, optional survey.

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