|
I took this course in Fall 2015 with Dr. Khan.
An quick google search will take you to the course outline.
This is my review:
Lectures were interesting and very closely followed the textbook. So if you missed a lecture for some reason, reading the textbook would help you catch up, but Dr. Khan helps to explain confusing concepts and experiments better, especially when people ask her to do so in class. Dr. Khan also shows videos in class which will not be included in the lecture slides she posts online, so taking notes on these is important. A question on the final exam asked to summarize what happened in a video and connect it to course material.
Basically in this course, you look at a bunch of experiments done to investigate animal behaviour across various topics (like mating behavior, social behavior, etc).
2 Midterms - you really need to memorize all the experiments to do well on tests because you have to explain them on the tests. Dr. Khan is very specific about what she expects in the answers. When reviewing my tests with the TAs, I was often in disbelief about why I lost marks. For this reason, her tests are difficult. The test layout are 5-7 multiple choice, (which are pretty difficult) then she gives one page that has 15-17 statements on it and you have to pick out the 5 true statements, the rest of the test is short answer, with one longer answer. These are easy as long as you have studied all of the experiments, however I stress again they want PRECISE answers.
The assignment (20%): there are 2 assignments to choose from, but you only have to complete 1. I chose the assignment where you ask a question about an animal behaviour you have observed, you choose 3-5 peer-review journals and write a 4 page paper to answer the question. I started this assignment VERY late. However, it was not bad to complete and they are lenient with what they expect in terms of content and layout. I got an 86%.
One criticism about this course, other than the test difficulty, were the TAs and organization. It would take them 2-3 weeks to mark the tests, and another week to figure out when we could review the tests. Often they would only give a few hours notice for the reviews, and wouldn't be clear about where the room was. They were so late at marking things that I didn't even know my assignment grade until after the exam, and they offered assignment reviews after the exam...
The easiest way to get marks in this course is the in class iClicker quizzes (biweekly). You are allowed to talk with peers, and it is based off the previous week's chapter. The goal of these quizzes is for you to have read the chapter.
I really enjoyed the content of this class. It was an enjoyable course until Dr. Khan realized people did well on the first test (I believe the class average was a 76%), so she made the second test a lot more difficult, and it was the one that was worth more (20%). So even though I did well on the first test (80%), assignment and iClicker quizzes, attended every class and read the textbook, I did not finish this course with a great grade.
|
