Brian Ackley

Best aspects: Presents extremely challenging material - research papers written by professional researchers for professional researchers. Does everything to help students understand and succeed. Offers chances for extra credit. Engages the class in discussions. Encourages group work. The material was all in the lectures. A textbook was not required.

Could improve: Logistical only. Because there was no text, having the lectures recorded and available online was necessary. However the sound wasn't always clear. This is a limitation of the university's online system. It would be useful to recommend some online resources students could refer to on the relevant topics. In fact a whole class period dedicated to evaluating online sources for instructional materials and published papers would have been useful. As for reading the individual papers, I found that it took so much time to adequately address the illustration that was assignment to my group, that I didn't have enough time to fully understand the rest of the paper.

Advice: Do not get behind. The material is difficult and the pace is fast. Read the papers multiple times - the first time, skip the "materials and methods" - but materials and methods will be important.