Friday, January 4, 2008
BIOL432
This entry is for students in Biology 432, Molecular Biotechnology 2, to leave feedback on the course; this feedback can be anonymous if desired and will allow me to tailor my teaching style in both the long-term and the short-term, including any adjustments or clarifications that become appropriate through the course of this semester.
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32 comments:
Hi Dr. Clark,
Was just trying to access the course website, and it looks like your previous course's (Biol 447) material is still up there. Is there a different website that I can access the lecture slides from?
Thanks
hi,
Just wondering if you would be able to include figure numbers in your lecture notes (the figure numbers ffrom the text)
Thanksss.
Hi,
Just some feedback, for future terms it would be a very convenient if you posted the course material through UW-ACE.
:)
Hi Dr. Clark
It would be wonderful if you could post the notes in PDF format. Many people seem to have problems with viewing the images within them. I guess its easy to do since you have a mac.
As well, personally, I think it will be more beneficial to go through some types of questions or analysis of a figure rather than going through a list of points that we can do ourselves.
Hi Dr. Clark,
Regarding the Lecture 9 link for tomorrow (January 25, 2008), it seems that you have uploaded the lecture 8 ppt file instead of lecture 9 (at 6:30pm at least). Would you mind checking it out please?
Thanks.
hey there, just wondering if you could not add the lecture slides you didnt get to the previous day to the next set of lecture notes. Its confusing and wastes paper.
Dr. Clark,
It would be really cool if, after each lecture set of slides: you could recap some of the major points and ideas covered.
You have a tendency to fly through some of the slides, so a recap towards the end of a set would be great to pick-up on any missed information.
Thanks!
Hi Dr. Clark,
Since there is a mighty big snow storm coming tomorrow, I am just wondering how that will affect the status of our review session/midterm tomorrow.
Thanks!
Hi Dr. Clark,
I was just wondering if you would provide any sample questions or give us any idea as to what we should focus on for the midterm. I have never had you as a lecturer before so its difficult to know your testing style. If you could give us some feedback about that it would be great. Thanks.
There is a reason why almost every course is on UW-ACE... I think it is time for you to join the boat ;)
Thank You
I agree with the UW ace comment. I also think its a little strange that we have access to your personal blog and facebook profile. As a lecturer you might want to restrict that access. We are not your friends we don't need that information.
Wow, that last comment is unnecessarily harsh. As mentioned in class, this is not my course and I do not have access to the course page on UW-ACE.
I provide an area on my blog for feedback to help me to improve my lectures and respond quickly to comments and suggestions. There is no way for me restrict access to the rest of my blog to students in Biol 432, any more than there is way to prevent those students from seeking out or following a link to my Facebook profile. There is no material on either my blog or my Facebook profile that I require you to access, and I don't ask you to visit either, any more than I ask you to print out my lecture slides. Like the slides, this feedback option is there to help people who appreciate the option and if it's of no interest to you, then don't use it. I make myself available in various forms, online and in person, for those who are interested. Some students appreciate it, but photographs of my new TV won't be on the exam, so why would you begrudge them that? Why would you be offended by one of your lecturers having an online presence?
To sum up: The UW-ACE thing has been addressed and isn't going to change for this semester. The lecture slides are available in an editable format so that you can use or not use, print or don't print, and alter for your own use whatever you like - unless there is a legitimate problem that you cannot fix yourself, I am not going to change the way I post the slides. And the Internet is full of material that is not of specific interest to everybody and may even include materials that some people might find offensive. Maybe you think these things should be censored, but for the time being you're probably better off recognizing that some sites might not be for you, and just don't visit them.
Hi Dr Clark
As a mature student, I remember when we had to write all our notes by hand. The posting of lecture slides was unheard of when I first attended university, and we frequently finished class with tired hands! I for one am grateful that you take the time to post you slides at all, and that you go to the trouble of actually hosting a website to get around the UWAce problem, is really appreciated. Seriously people, how big of a deal is it to go to another website in order to download slides that Dr Clark is certainly not obliged to post in the first place?
Agreed with the person above about posting lectures. I had a lecturer LAST TERM who refused to post notes and he simply threw up his KeyNote slides and you would hope you had fast enough writing or typing skills to get it all down. Sorry to hear that everyone's life is so easy around here... and how easy it is to be critical when posting is anonymous.
Well, this is my first time here and I just came to say thanks for writing a fair midterm. It was appreciated and I don't think anyone should have had anything to complain about after its completion. It was refreshing to not feel like I just got pwned after that test, which you easily could have done, and might have felt nice considering some of the rude comments on here.
I like the guest lecturer. she just told us to start throwing money at her. hope you have a safe trip in Winnipeg!
Maria was great today, and yes you should get paid more for pronouncing those names! Looking forward to the orange sweater :)
wow, it's a shame that all the feedback here is about the slides, when there's an opportunity to give a great lecturer some feedback on his actual teaching. he's nice enough to be open to feedbank, and is the first prof i've had in four years to be so accessible. let's all keep the big picture in mind..
PS. maria was great and the big words sound cooler with the accent :)
This is a blog for feedback about the course. The slides are a big part of the course so naturally people will bring them up in a blog about the course, its not "a shame". Don't get me wrong Dr. Clark is a very good lecturer and people who think so should definitely post and say so, but people who have negative feedback should be able to bring it up too. Not everyone shares the same opinion.
Hi,
I still can't open and print the file for lecture 13/14. No idea why. Anyone has the same problem as I? :(
Help me out, please.
Thank you.
Hi Dr. Clark,
Just wondering when we can expect to see our midterm marks.
Thanks!
hi dr. clark,
I appreciate the fact that you are trying to help us in the course, however, this is a FOURTH year course, we do not need you to baby us on how to perform well in 4B. You already covered what you expect on the midterms in the first lecture. I feel that if people did poorly on the midterm/final/asst/etc. then they should take the initiative and ask you about it, you do not need to tell the whole class what some people did wrong and need to improve on. Just mentioning the average gets the point across whether the class performed well or not.
In regards to the slides, I agree that lectures are not a substitute but I have been attending all your lectures, and it is very useful to have the complete set to follow along while i am making my own notes. I am referring to the recent slides which have had many diagrams which are not present anywhere else. This was for lecture 13/14, we were told that the slides would be posted and not to copy them down.
Maria did tell us on a few occasions during her lectures that we do not need to copy down additional slides as they would be posted on the website at a later time. When will the slides be posted?
Hey Dr. Clark,
I was wondering if it would be possible to have the option of making the final worth more if you do better on the final exam than on the midterm.
Thanks!
I think you are assuming that every person in biol 432 has had some kind of biotech lab experience. This is definitely not the case, as most of these students have never worked in a lab or have the experience you assume. This makes your lectures much harder to follow as you tend to skip past the "nitty gritty" details but expect the entire class to recite this on a 50 minute midterm. Another problem i have is that this is a fourth year course and most of the information you are asking us to recite on a midterm or exam, we have not learned in this class and most of it is common knowledge to us that we do not feel the need to explain the basics. It would be nice to know what you are expecting, as you say in class that "if we dont know the exact name of something but know what it does" we can get marks, yet you penalize us and seem to pick and choose where you will take marks away. Moral of the story-you cant expect us to explain every process in the finest details if you dont even go over them for us in class.
it would be helpful if you could post up practice exam questions
Prof Clark,
It would be great if you could use the last few lectures to review course material and go over questions that your students have.
Thanks
Dr. Clark
I would like to say that it is extremely difficult to access your course notes. I understand that you are not allowed to use UWace.. but I cannot find your webpage anywhere. And in case you were wondering- this is not my first time looking for it, but I don't currently have my computer, so I don't have the bookmark with your webpage. So I have now searched through the www.uwaterloo.ca site, no luck for a link, through your facebook profile, no link... and now skimmed through this blog.. no link. It is really nice to have so many feedback options.. but really I just want the course notes. Could you possibly list the link where ever your mention Biol 432?(especially since it is not an easy one to remember.. they never are)
It would really make it less of a hassle to find. It's not difficult to find you... but it is really difficult to find your notes.
Soooooooooooooooooooo....How many and what type of questions are on the final? :D
Please please please please don't kill us on the final. Some of us are hoping to graduate. Please be kind :)
Hi Dr. Clark,
Just wanted to say that the final was very long. I know you said if we plan it we should have enough time, but even after planing and knowing my stuff really well I didn't have enough time to write down all the details needed in the question and there was definitely no time for reviewing.
I mean this exam requires us to think since we are coming up with strategies. Don't you think you should give the students a little more time to do that?
Kindly make the exam of a reasonable length for the future students.
hi Dr. Clark,
When will you have our final grades available?
Dr. Clark you never respond to comments!!!
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