Neuromechanics of Human Movement: For Learners by Learners

Hello and Welcome to Our Textbook:

At the time of this writing, there was not an open-access online textbook on motor learning, motor control, or neuromechanics of movement. So we decided to make one. This textbook was researched and written by Masters of Kinesiology students at Cal Poly – Humboldt in Spring 2023 in KINS 580: Special Topics in Neuromechanics.

This book is unique for three big reasons:

1. This textbook is written for learners by learners – not experts. We agreed on the expectations for each chapter after talking through what we like most in textbooks and each student claimed the chapter they wanted to write. The students and professor talked through potential topics within their chapters, but it was ultimately up to the students to decide the direction they wanted to take with the chapter. Again, because this is written by learners who had 10 weeks to learn about the content in their chapter, experts might find some of the information incomplete.
2. We’re using Open AI to our advantage. This semester is the first semester where ChatGPT 3.5 has started to revolutionize/disrupt higher education. Rather than seeing Open AI as an enemy of higher education, we are using it to our advantage. We discussed the benefits and limitations of ChatGPT and how we wanted to work with it in an ethical way. We agreed that the content ChatGPT 3.5 created would help to flesh out the bulk of the text, but it was up to the students to round out the content in their own words and to include peer-reviewed research.
3. We want YOUR feedback. This textbook is meant to be iterative – meaning that it will continue to be updated each time this class is offered. We hope to get feedback from the audience about things you’d like to see in the next version of the book to continue to transform this book to meet the needs of students and teachers in college settings. There is a link to the google form to give your feedback at the end of every chapter to make it easy for you to give us feedback. We’re looking forward to continuous improvement.