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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Fundamentals of Immunology: Innate Immunity and B-Cell Function by Rice University

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About the Course

Course 1 of a three course specialization called Fundamentals of Immunology. Each course in the specialization presents material that builds on the previous course's material. This is the first leg of a three-part journey through the defenses your body uses to keep you healthy. In this part we hope to give you the vocabulary and concepts you need to interact with the medical community and to provide them in a context that makes them memorable. Fundamentals of Immunology introduces students to the basic functions of the adaptive and innate immune systems. The early lectures survey cells, tissues and organs using metaphors, cartoons and models to improve understanding and retention. After describing the form, function, origin and varieties of antibodies, subsequent lectures provide details on the mechanism of the generation of variation. The course provides animations of gene rearrangement and class switching and descriptions of affinity maturation correlated with detailed physical models of antibody structure. The final lecture reviews these concepts in anatomical context. Testing employs multiple choice questions testing facts, concepts, and application of principles. Questions may refer to diagrams, drawing and photographs used in lecture and reproduced in the outline. What You’ll Learn: The difference between adaptive and innate immune systems, the characteristics of various pathogens that they protect you from and the overall strategies employed in this protection. The detailed structure of antibodies and related immunoglobulin receptors, the characteristics and function of the different antibody classes and the mechanism for producing both the recognition regions and stem regions.  Finally, how these structures are coded for in the DNA and expressed in the B cells....

Top reviews

AL

Aug 5, 2019

So far the lecturer has been very entertaining and interesting in her explanation of various concepts of immunology. I am excited to finish this course, which will be relevant to my future studies.

BR

Nov 21, 2020

Thank you very much Professor! I really enjoyed your lessons and passion for teaching. I am glad you are able to share your talent with the world via this medium. Looking forward to the next class!

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51 - 75 of 327 Reviews for Fundamentals of Immunology: Innate Immunity and B-Cell Function

By Prabin K

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Sep 23, 2019

It is a nice lecture series. Helpful in understanding the concepts of immunology. Most of the concepts of immunology are clearly explain diagrammatically that helps me easily understand the things.

Lastly, thank you , professor, for such a lucid lecture

By K. J

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Jun 6, 2021

Excellent course - it was much more indepth that I had expected, but in a good way. Oftentimes courses can be a little underwhelming, but this was a real challenge. The cherry on top is that Prof. Novotny is also a charming, humorous lecturer.

By Janice R

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Dec 6, 2020

Dr. Novotny is very cool! I like her personality. She makes this difficult course more bearable and easier to learn. I learned a lot of things about innate immunity and B-cells even as a beginner. Thank you so much for this wonderful course!

By Alisha S

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Aug 24, 2020

This course is really good. The professor explained the concepts really well and the quizzes were fun to do and really tested my knowledge. I really struggled in immunology but now I feel so much more comfortable with the subject. Thank you!

By Isha S

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Sep 5, 2020

A finely structured course with an efficient mentor who delivered it so beautifully! I am so looking forward to proceeding with the second part of this specialisation series! :) Biggest thanks to Coursera, Rice University and Prof. Novotny!

By Juan D M L

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May 17, 2021

It was an amazing course, probably one with too many detailed parts, but the way this professor did it, was very helpful, also, her personality ROCKS!!!! all the models, the way she dressed as an attacker, she is just one of a kind!

By Sunil L B S

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Apr 13, 2020

The best and well-organized course for beginners and also for intermediates. It was like blessing fro me to joining this course and learning and clearing the basics concepts of immunology. I am falling in love with this course.....

By Sumitra L

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Jun 11, 2020

So far, I am thoroughly enjoying this course. I love the enthusiasm and passion that the teacher teaches with. Moreover, I love how the teacher has summarized all the major concepts into tables, making it easier to remember them.

By Mike S

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Sep 13, 2020

This course was a lot of fun! Definitely requires some basic cell bio and genetics as prerequisites, but nothing too deep. It ramps up near the end with some really nice, in-depth explanations of V(D)J recombination.

By Durbar S

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Dec 4, 2019

Excellent! Videos are enough. may require re-watching. Professor

Alma Moon Novotny was really good. She's cute and has come up with lot of techniques to make things harder to forget. Would love to take more courses.

By Quek Y

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Dec 14, 2020

Lecturer is adorable. great and engaging videos. lots to learn and digest. duration of videos quite manageable. ideally one should do this over a longer space of time instead of bliztzing through the lot.

By Enyerbert G

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Sep 3, 2020

Excellent course, I will review all the videos, the information is very complete, excellent for med and biology students. I'm impressed with the facility that teacher can simplify the content.

By Vishal L

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Aug 7, 2020

Actually I'm the person who hate immunology because of lot of complications and terminologies involved. But this course helped me to clear those concepts and learn immunology in a better way.

By MATILDE I

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May 25, 2021

I'm attending the last year of my Master in Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry. Even if I'm not a med student I loved this course: it was clear and in some way funny. I highly recommend it.

By Aldo H O T

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Nov 30, 2021

Excellent course!

It helped me reinforce previous knowledge of immunology with clear examples and a focus on function rather than terminology. Looking forward to the other courses.

By Sandy

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Mar 31, 2020

Professor Novotny is one of the best teachers I have seen, she has such a good sense of humor and she makes learning fun and easy....and I love the owl T-Shirts she wears! 8-)

By Jessica A

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Jan 28, 2021

I just love it, PhD. Alma Moon is just one of the best teachers I have seen, very clear explanations and analytical exams. Really really good course. Thank you so much for that.

By Luisa F D B

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Jul 27, 2020

I really liked this course, I am a doctorate student with no medical or human biology background so this course was a really great start for me to introduce myself in immunology

By Lexi K

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Nov 30, 2020

Dr. Novotny is an absolute master of creating cohesive, intuitively structured and enjoyable lectures. This course is a wonderful learning opportunity and I fully recommend!

By Dan A

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Mar 14, 2021

I love this instructor! she explains things so well with touch of personality that, for me, made the information more fun to compartmentalize and absorb for the long term.

By Fariel S

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Nov 14, 2020

great course. fantastic lecturer.. however, it would possibly have been more interesting if the correct answers were not shown after making a mistake in the first attempt

By Lal N

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Aug 27, 2023

Very structured and organized course. The videos and handouts are good for a beginner in immunology. The quizzes and final are adequately challenging. Highly recommended.

By Bright C J

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Dec 10, 2020

This course is highly recommended as it opens the innate conceptualization of the fundamentals of Immunology. Excellent delivery from the Rice University management team,

By Muhammed S K M

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Jun 9, 2020

The way of teaching and the way of conducting tests are excellent. I was not much interested in immunology until I start this course but now I started loving the subject.

By Irina S

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Mar 29, 2020

This is an amazing course where all scientific materials presented in a very interesting, engaging and easily comprehensive way be the brilliant Professor A. M. Novotny