Coursera - Introductory Human Physiology

The goal of this course is to provide an introduction to human physiology. The students learn to recognize and explain the basic concepts that govern each organ and organ system and their integration to maintain homeostasis, as well as some clinical aspects of failure of these systems. The organ systems covered include: nervous, muscle, cardiovascular, respiratory, endocrine, male and female reproductive, gastrointestinal, and urinary.

This human physiology course is targeted to undergraduate and graduate students with an elementary background in biology. In a typical undergraduate setting, this course would fulfill requirements for students applying to professional health science programs such as medical school, nursing, physician assistant, pathologists’ assistant, physical therapy, and doctorate of physical therapy. In addition it is an ideal course in preparation for the MCAT exam.
Course Syllabus

This course will cover the following main topics:
- Homeostatic control systems
- Function of individual organs and organ systems
- Integration of organ systems in the intact organism

Recommended Background
- An high school background in biology.
- Suggested Readings
- Other than course lecture notes, there are no outside readings/textbooks required.

Course Format
Introductory Human Physiology is a 12-week course. It consists of 31 lecture hours divided into 58 lecture videos of approximately 20 minutes in length. At the end of each lecture video, there are 2-3 questions for review. Each lecture has notes (6-8 pages) and a problem set of 10-15 questions. There are 3 multiple choice exams which test recognition and application of basic science principles and interpretation of physiologic data.