Avis et commentaires pour d'étudiants pour Biological Diversity (Theories, Measures and Data sampling techniques) par Université d'État de Tomsk

Some of the suggested reading is behind paywalls. It would be helpful to have PDFs available to download through Coursera, rather than having to search for each title.

The course is a list of mathematical and statistical definitions, almost read from a teleprompter, accompanied by little to no examples, whose ecological purpose is at best quickly mentioned. Also, the transcripts contain errors, sometimes the phrases make no sense in English. It’s not that the maths is difficult, at least not for me. The problem is that the target audience seems to be ecology students who need a quick recap of formulae and recipes that they already know. For any other target I can think of, the pedagogical method is awful and ineffective. While there is little doubt on the competence of the professor, that is not enough to assure transmission of the knowledge. A better approach, for instance, would be to:

1. Justify the need of ways to quantify relevant variables for ecology and biodiversity studies, based on ecological and biodiversity problems or case studies.

2. Introduce the estimators and their comparison with actual examples. Idem for the models.

3. Provide notes, pdf of some references, or at least pdfs of the slides. Trascripts are unreliable and all the extra resources are behind paywall or require buying books.

For a better transmission, each week could last twice or three times longer. That’s perfectly ok: It’s hard to conceive why one may want to compress any university level course in 6 hours, this one is no exception. The result is a disaster, as proven in this case by the long, sad list of questions in the forum by people who are completely lost, not because of their fault. In any case, the attendance rate seems very low.

Unless you fall in the category I mentioned (ecology students who need a quick recap of formulae and recipes that they already know) or they change it a lot, do not take this course, it's a waste of time and money.

This course seems great, although plenty of errors in the audio transcript. The steepness of the learning curve increased very quickly and understandability decreased after week 3, which made me drop the course. I hope to be able to retake it some time in the future with the right mathematical skills.

As mentioned, this course is for intermediate studies; however, it would have been really helpful if the mentor had given some examples on how to calculate with proper examples rather than simply stating the formulas. Overall, the course is a huge benefit if you already know many of the basics.

Great course, the second half is all statistical equations, gives a good overview of seemingly every mathematical equation applicable to ecology. I'd rather learn a few equations in depth than a rushed overview of the entire realm of statistics... but it was useful and I appreciate having a much greater sense of the subject, and it will be a great reference for me in the future.

All the statistical techniques must be moved to quizzes and problem-solving. Data sets can be given from actual field or lab data to work on. The lectures can focus on the conceptual nuances and the biological implications/assumptions/caveats of the statistics. That would be more helpful.

Not much examples were given to make the techniques easier to understand. Also, was too fast and too much information was clustered into each video making it a mess to understand. More information on how the techniques and equations are derived needs to be explained. Also, the accent was a little incomprehensible.

I really love this course because the theories and calculations are described well and after assignments are completed I get real understanding of the theories.

this course is pretty thorough as far as data sampling goes. The professor is clearly very well versed in the statistical methods. This course is mainly about statistical methods used in the field of biodiversity, so at the end, you will have to use the formulas mentioned in lectures (without any worked examples), so if you are not comfortable with calculus, it's not for you. The transcripts are helpful but often incomprehensible.

Through this course i expanded my knowledge on how to analyze and present my biodiversity data that would make it more meaningful and more impactful. However, there are no clear explanations on how to calculate the different analysis, what values are needed and where they should be inputted, and clear examples for us to really understand the calculation, or at least present software that may be useful

This course was very helpful but there is a need to discuss it more further in details.

The subjects are very interesting, but it is difficult to understand the professor. It was very frustrating that the quizzes weren´t graded unless you paid :/

These course gives you a clear idea how to measure biodiversity in different ways. We learn different types of biodiversity in these course. We learn how biodiversity plays a role in earth and how global warming, environmental pollution effects cause decrease of biodiversity. We also know other parameters which effects biodiversity.

A comprehensive topic on biological diversity with very interesting modules. Though it was a long lecture, it was not boring and I learned a lot. I really love this course because the theories and calculations are described well and after assignments are completed I get real understanding of the theories.

Very much useful course for intermediate level learners for understanding the measurement of biodiversity, diversity curves, abundance models, comparing species diversity between communities and analysis of anthropogenic threats to biodiversity.

A well organized course from basics of biodiversity to the field requirements; it has covered the necessary methodologies. It was very useful. Special Thanks to Dr. Roberto Cazzolla Gatti of NRTS University; who was the backbone of the course.

This course was well organised and very informative course. Some parts of this program may very helpful for my future works. Thanks, you all for the great job!

Extremely helpful. The mathematical techniques of samplings are easily simplified in this course. Just go for it

This is a great course, very thorough and comprehensive introduction to Biological Diversity.

Es un curso bastante constructivo, ojalá exista otro como continuación de este.

i have acquired a lot of knowledge about biological diversity. thanks TSU

Very Useful and Comprehensive course for Biodiversity Analysis

Love the course, thanks to all of you who made it possible

The course module is very simple and systematic

Lots of new information. Really great course!