Any comments, e.g. on specific parts of the course:
The lectures were very cryptic, we just saw equations, but the parameters, their behavior and their usage was usually excluded. In my case, having no background in thermodynamics, ion gates and all the other "basic" requirements of the course I found that the first 4 weeks of lectures were too complex for me to assimilate on time. After studying some of these subjects more in depth I was able to start understanding further lectures a little bit better.
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The contents were medium difficult, but it was hard to learn since there was so much information from different sources and it took so long to compile the information.
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lots of different things from different subject that I didn't know at all (thermodynamics, electricity...)
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Labs are easy, final test a bit tricky in some parts.
Any comments, e.g. on specific parts of the course that are missing or could be excluded:
All topics were extremely interesting, I believe that at the end I did understand the main methodology in modeling.
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Real lab oppertunities, where you can get assistant help (not just book ten minutes, but get 2 hours or so)
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interesting, but I would like to understand better where are the equations from.
Any comments, e.g. on specific parts of the course:
Not at all, moreover I suggest a much more extensive background reference compendium for students that are not familiar with these types of problems.
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I am from computer science, and the thermodynamics and electricity part ask me really lots of work...
Any comments on the book (write first Course pile, JW or Fall):
Many of the equations in the Westmark compendium had errors.
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course pile.
good in general, but as i mentioned before a bit to much information. I started to read through them (from the beginning of the course), but in the end i realized that there was no time to finish..
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about kursbunten : in the whole clear, but
I found some mistakes (a least in math calculation), and contradictions between some different parts, which confuse me.
Any comments on the other course material:
Again, it is necessary to create a flow chart of how each topic is tied together to give the student a sense of direction.
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what other course material?
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Tell at the beginning that we have this reading directions, because it took me a long times to realised it... And as there is a lot, maybe tell to exchange student that we are supposed to read lots of things at the beginning. In france it is not the case, so I think I begin to read too late...
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more on calcium dynamics would be helpful
Any comments on the lectures:
The level was too high, we barely did any examples, and most of the equations were run through. In most cases the equations were not explained thoroughly and rarely we would go through the parameters and how each of them would affect the behavior of the system.
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the lectures was basically listing of formulas and the big picture was lost. However the practicle examples on the black board was usally very rewarding.
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Lecturer is well-educated undoubtly, but may be not well-experienced enough. So, understanding the topic during lectures was difficult.
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I really like the subject. Teacher listen to students, and is here for help. But sometimes unclear, at least for me... I think what could have help me, could be to have all the parameters of the equation well defined, and with the units... And maybe explain more what we are doing, what we are modelling, what is the goal of what we are doing. Because sometimes it was ok, but sometimes I was totally lost.
Any comments on the level of the lectures:
The level is too high, it was also very hard to connect the dots, how did everything fit in, what was all this material going to help us do. As motivation I would have shown a schema that connects enzymatic reactions, Ion gate operation, Diffusion, etc etc etc and how all these theories can be combined to finally solve a specific set of problems, maybe show some of the animations we saw on the last class but as a first step, then the lecturer can refer back to a visual image so that the student can fit the theory in a specific problem. The lecturer would jump into the specifics before explaining the whole picture first. It was very tasking to reverse engeneer the problem from the lecture.
Any comments on the labs:
The course topics are great, and the labs will help you a lot.
First lab is extremely difficult, as a first task it is very easy to turn many students down. I would suggest creating an "easy" version of Lab1 where the student is guided through the lab. I don't suggest you change the tasks of Lab 1 but I would suggest to add more "intermediate" steps to the Lab, that guide you through the process, and in other labs you can progressively eliminate steps in other labs. In general I think the first labs should be more guided and then as one gets a hold of the material, the labs should become more and more tasking where the student is asked to think for himself rather than follow a list of steps.
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some things were really good, other things not so good. Lab 2 was really good and you learned a lot. Lab 1 was good but there could of been a little bit of "warm up" questions to get you started easily. Lab 4 (both a and b) are impossible to start without assistance with the existing lab instructions. I have so far wasted 3 hours on getting the simulators working (and 4b is still not working). 1st of all there should say somewhere on the lab instructions that you need to download the files from the homepage (i know it says so on the homepage, but it wouldn't hurt to be in the instructions aswell) 2ndly the command to start the program in the terminal is wrong. The problem with 4b I cant explain yet since i havn't figured it out... These sort of problems would however not be an issue if there where lab occations with assistent help.
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maybe put some time available for help. Lab very interesting, but it takes me really lots of times... And some difficulties to make the simulators work (swim and genesis(which dont work one every computers... not in gron for example)), which is a loss of lots of times, and so annoying.
Any comments on the project:
I would have preferred to have the option to further one of the labs and present it as a project because I really enjoyed doing the projects and I developed some functionality.
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not done yet
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too little time for the presentations
I think the course is good as an introduction to the subject. On the other hand, I would like a course with deeper material and more hands on advanced modelling.
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During the first month of lectures I felt that I did not understand the purpose of the course, everything seemed disconnected, it would have been nice in the course plan to describe the main point of the course and how it lecture and topic gets you a step closer to be able to solve a specific type of problem.
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*Very interesting. Very good introduction to computational biology.
*It covers lot of interesting subjects.
*As far as I am concerned, I think that the calcium dynamics part is difficult, it would be nice to include some introductory material.
Denna sammanställning har genererats med ACE.