Avis et commentaires pour d'étudiants pour Ecology: from cells to Gaia par Université d'État de Tomsk

I completed the first 2 weeks of this course before I unenrolled. I did not learn much at all. The lectures are a jumble of advanced theories and vocab words that are very briefly explained (if explained at all), with no real uniting theme behind them. You walk away confused, trying to remember all of the dozens of advanced concepts and issues that were brought up in the last 5 minutes, without a clear sense of WHY these concepts are important or HOW they make sense in the bigger picture. I would only recommend this course to someone who has already had an extensive training in ecology who needs a very quick refresher on vocab words. Anyone who is a beginner, who is trying to develop a more in-depth understanding of ecology, or who wants to learn about the big picture of how the study of ecology relates to the world should find another course.

The lectures that compose the first module of this course are short rambles that mention a great many ecological concepts with no consistent theme. The quiz at the end of the module somehow expects the student to have gleaned a detailed understanding of random disparate concepts only briefly mentioned in the preceding lectures. I passed the quiz, but only because I had some previous understanding of the material; I did not learn anything from the lectures. I decided not to continue with the class after this point. The instructor needs to make an effort to structure the material such that basic concepts are taught first, one concept at a time, and in sufficient detail that the student is able to learn what is expected of them.

When I decided to take the course, I had high hopes but they came crashing down in Week 1 itself. I didn't want to judge prematurely so I did the entire course and found it to be badly structured, haphazard and it definitely doesn't give a learner all that it can. While the instructor seems to know his subject, the way in which he rushes through everything, grazing only the surface, at the same time throwing around jargon (either leaving it unexplained or explaining it poorly), is quite annoying. There are too many unexplained visuals and there isn't any complementary reading material. At the start of the course they list 30-odd pages worth of reading material but don't provide links to any during the course at the appropriate times. Also the questions in all the quizzes are written/phrased so poorly that at times you have no idea what they mean or you end up spending extra time rereading the sentences trying to make sense of them. If the course is in English, it should make sense so that learners can understand what's being said. Overall, I expected to learn a lot but learnt very little. There are other courses on Coursera that provide the same or better information in a much more structured manner. Any course has to be well thought out and well structured to be effective and this definitely isn't.

The course is very useful for those who are concerned with the enviromantal studies and conservation of the Earth. It is very simple to understand and is provided with videos and transcriptions.

I took this course as a refresher while prepping for graduate level study in wildlife biology. I don't know how someone with no previous ecology course work could pass this class. The instructor talks way to fast & covers topics that most professors would spend several hour long lectures in minutes. I am also uncomfortable with the Gaia hypothesis which I brings up repeatedly in later lectures. While the hypothesis is not without merit the scientific community is still generally skeptical & he makes no real effort to discuss criticisms.

On the Quizzes, when in doubt just pick the most long winded option as it is generally the correct one.

Also its not a five week class. The fifth week is a lie.

The course intention is really good. Unfortunately, it is a compilation of definitions not very well linked to each other. It is hard to see where the teacher is taking us. Furthermore, many sentences don't make sense (grammatically) and it even by reading the transcript, it is hard to understand what it is meant.

There are many interesting concepts but they should developed more. I got the feeling I was rushing through concepts and not really learning anything, even though it is my field of expertise and I was taking notes of everything.

The ascent of the lecturer is not easy to follow for a non-English native like myself. There are some very good contents covered in the MOOC, which is commendable (e.g. Gaia).

Great topics covered. Honest portrayal of current environmental challenges and ways to address them, and super interesting and not too difficult course material. Well balanced and thought through course.

such a nice course, presentation is so good , specially thanks to university "Tomsk State University".

Although it is clear that the instructor knows this subject, I would not recommend this course to anyone as an ineffective educational tool.

The instructor speaks rapidly in a thick accent, forcing reliance upon faulty captions. The video captions inaccurately represent the words being spoken, forcing learners to spend more time trying to interpret lecture content than they spend thinking about the ideas themselves. If a learner does not already know the content being shared, they may not be able to make sense of the information or may even learn concepts incorrectly due to the blatantly inaccurate captions.

For example, the caption claimed that "organisms are an island of water in a sea of cows" where it should have said that they are an "island of order in a sea of chaos." Mistakes like these frequently occurred within the course's text, rendering it barely useable and utterly exasperating.

Poor english. A lot of words were misspelled and the explanations of concepts often unclear. Also the questions in the quiz did not always reflect the material covered in the lectures.

It is very useful to understand about the biodiversity and it is fabulous

when the first quiz does not provide answers in material in the module ... I leave ang dive one star -

do not spend time being disrespected as as learner. Frankly amazed about that in this course as this Uni usually not like this ...

Was an excellent informative introduction to ecology. The presenter is very informative. His pronounciation of English meant that I had to pay close attention to his lectures (which is good, because learners should pay attention). There is also a transcript which is very useful, especially when reviewing for the test quizzes. Lot's of references to further reading and a mini-project to wrap it up at the end.

I loved the course. The material is a great refresher of topics covered in ecology, supplemented with an overview of updates in the field which suggest new directions for the study of ecology. I very much appreciate the time and effort put in the development of the course by the team and the professor. Thank you very much!

Enjoyed this course very much. While it was a little hard to understand the teacher, I put on the caption/subtitles and was able to follow along with relative ease. Throughout the course I was very impressed by the thoroughness of the content and the level and types of research currently being done in ecology.

It was an excellent course! I studied biology but due to inconveniences my ecology was not very good, but with this course I not only learned a lot, but I also remembered various concepts and consolidated many topics.

Thank you very much

The course was comprehensive and comprehendible by a anyone with a basic background in biology or ecology. Looking forward to more courses like these on Coursera!

It is wonderful class. I thoroughly enjoyed.Igetmore information about nature.

It is very useful in my studies.and my projects

It is very interesting topic to know about biodiversity.

Thanks for offering this course it is just 💯% fabulous.

INTERESTING SINCE ITS ALL ABOUT NATURE.

This was a great course. Interesting

It was an amazing course I have done