Learner Reviews & Feedback for Medical Neuroscience by Duke University

As the tutor had mentioned one of the largest course in the coursera. Being prepared for that I had some expectations about the course structure and relevance and worth each second. But to my disappointment, only a few modules were made interesting. Most of the time its too much jargon and irrelevant to the term medial neuroscience title.

Good points

introduction of brain lab and Sylvius.

some experimental based data to convince the concepts

an easy and simple way of presentation by the Dr White

well ordered structure to cover basics

Not so good points:

it is boring to watch some repeated concepts

one gets irritated by so much bragging about self-research in the field of visual neuroscience

so entire brain development and early synaptic plasticity were cornered to the visual cortex.

so much data points and so much stuff without a proper background or clear explanations (esp about all the special senses part, associated brain cortex part and brain development chapters)

Please reconsider the title for this program. No medical part involved in the whole course.

Good for those in the early stage of MD-PhD guys.

Terrible terrible terrible!!! I take classes about sleep disorders and I was recommended to take a class in neuroscience first. But the class here are just an advertisement. They just talk about themselves and what they are doing,what I am not interested in. I was waiting when theoretical lessons are starting,but I give up. And money is already paid.

The course is sublime. I would like to give my thanks to Dr. White, to the crew, to the site. You all made something special, a unique experience on this site and further. Starting this course back in June, I felt inspired and motivated from the beginning, all thanks to Leo's pedagogical approach. The community is strong, the volunteers are doing a great job. The course was very demanding, right from the start. I would say it was the hardest in the beginning, especially if you have no prior knowledge of the brain or medical terms. I believe that I learned a lot, but there is still so many things that I didn't get the grasp of, and that's fine. I am looking forward to taking this course again in the future. But the most important thing for me was that, with this course, I created a very healthy routine, where I would turn on the lectures after waking up, while having a cup of coffee. I can only see this routine continue further, maybe while watching some other lectures or reading. All in all it was a wholesome experience, I learned a lot, created new habits, got to know more about neuroscience with no prior experience. TEAM, THANK YOU.

To future students: My mistake was that I didn't draw the tracts and the nuclei in the brainstem. It was harder to get through the course and the exams without doing so, please follow Leo's advice, it wasn't misplaced.

Finally, upon completion of this excellent course, I have a structured understanding of brain function based on the knowledge of anatomy and cellular level processes. Solving clinical cases gives a sense of practical application of the knowledge you just acquired, especially those from the University of Utah with video recordings of real patients, where you can compare your findings with real physician's records. Lots of links to extremely useful resources which I can use in further studies make this course a great point of entry to modern Neuroscience.

To make the course even better in future versions, I can propose to include phylogenetic perspective to explain how different circuits formed through the evolution and why corresponding features of the brain were crucial for the survival of our ancestors - it allows for a deeper understanding of CNS function. The overall course duration can be preserved by compressing some duplicate reminders of core concepts, for example.

Incredible course! One of a kind! I can't but admire the meticulous preparation, methodology and the constant thought about the learner that's behind it. But I have to say - this was the most difficult course I've ever taken in my life... I had my ups and downs, many times I thought that I'm going to quit - but I kept going, mainly thanks to the thoughtful organization of the study materials, which makes it so rewarding at the end, and to the community support standing by. This course is definitely unique and for me, personally, it changed a lot. I am not a medical professional and this course opened a whole new world which is worth exploring further! Finishing this course is like finishing reading a good book, when closing the last page you think of those who are going to go through it for the first time and you are happy for them. :)

This course is like no other online course. It takes full dedication in order to complete it but at the end you feel like you have accomplished something really meaningful. You must work really hard and show a big amount of self-discipline and then everything pays off. The structure of the course was brilliant. Dr. White is the perfect lecturer and he manages to inspire you throughout the whole course. I'm really grateful for the creation of this intensive and really helpful course. These words come from a medical student in Germany - so that's a greatly appreciation of the spectacular work that the team of Duke University has done. I'm looking forward to participating in other wonderful projects like this one!

Excellent course, the best I've had on Coursera! I really enjoyed the depth of this course into neurology and the gradual and clear explanation of Dr. White. It covers anatomy, histology, physiology, embryology, molecular biology, pathology and much more! All illustrated with anatomical specimens and illustrations. Deep respect for the immense knowledge of Dr. White about the neural anatomy! As a medical student with affinity for neurology, I've become more enthusiastic for this specialism and this course is a good way to prepare for my residency. It's a shame that the course has an ending! But i'm definitely gonna rewatch some of the tutorials again!

Excellent material, excellent teaching techniques, excellent and challenging evaluations. Allows the student to initiate and complement study contents. I'm very satisfied with the course as a whole, and very grateful to Dr. White, Duke University and Coursera's platform for allowing healthcare professionals, like myself, to get in touch with the various aspects of Neuroscience (which are not commonly available in my country) and develop a future in this scientific world.

Fantastic course! Thank you so much, Prof Dr Len White and team! 13 weeks full of super interesting neuroscience! I feel like having studied a whole semester at Duke University. And now I appreciate even more all the complex relationships inside our brain, the interconnections to our senses and muscles, and all the chemical and electrical dependencies. Awesome! :)

As a former US medical student, I signed up for this course as a rapid review for my upcoming PhD program involving neuroscience research. In terms of difficulty, the content of this course is on par with that of preclinical medical school coursework. The only difference being that medical school exams are longer, closed-book, and timed (obviously).

I am not a medical student but love biology and want to explore how human body works. I am so much intrested in Neurocsience. This course is one of the best and professor White's way of teaching and making students understand the Nervous system is best of best. Though for me it takes time but I am able to learn slowly. Thanks Prof White.

A singular online learning experience, certainly enriching. Thoughtfully structured with Dr. White's rigorous and gentle touch. It gives me a very effective introduction into this world and now I'm equipped with a good map to further pursue one or more of the intrigues it presents me.

Very well designed and innovative course. I feel as though I have really progressed as a practitioner after completing this course. I warn you however, it is a long course and can be very challenging at parts, especially if you are juggling other commitments at the same time.

This course was truly in-depth and enlightening. Compared the quality of the content with other online learning platforms and noted that this one was more practical.

It is also very trying and needs a lot of discipline and hardwork. Well done for such a programme!

One of the most in-depth, feature complete course available on neuroscience. Highly recommended to anyone interested in neuroscience, and especially for people engaged in neuroscience research.

BEST COURSE EVER.

Even though my brain almost exploded from trying to keep up, it was definitely worth it. I can proudly say that I gained more than I could ever have imagined from the course.

I used this as preparation material for a module/test for my graduate degree and i found the videos to be clearer, more complete, and helpful than my actual courses. That is quite impressive.

The best course I ever had in my life. Thank you Dr. Len White for providing such an great opportunity to learn neuroscience and motivating us to explore the brain.

I thoroughly enjoyed this course! I learned so much from Dr White and was impressed with the quality and clarity of the course content.

Solid course. I only wish there were more. Thank you, Professor White & team!

very good course under the supervision of greatest Prof. L. White

the best course that i has been

thanks Dr Write

Depending on how long one has been out of school quite hard work. Needs a number of hours every week to keep up, especially for those not having "The Book" (Neuroscience) or not having the use of all the online material provided. (Logins didn't work). However, I'd recommend it to people in health professions like me, Physical Therapists, Occupational Therapists, Nurses in Neurology, or anyone wanting to revise the work with a clinical bias. It allowed me to study from home. which is great! It's the clinical stuff that was really interesting in the final exams although quite difficult!

I took the Medical Neuroscience course as a way of getting a broad overview of the subject, and was not disappointed. The course starts with a solid basis in neuroanatomy, and builds in concepts and topics in a well structured way. The course seems to pursue two goals - on the one hand, to provide the basic neuroanatomy, physiology and functional background, and on the other to apply the knowledge to understand, identify and localize some medical conditions such as stroke, motor neuron disease, or Parkinson's Disease. The lab sessions and tutorials are entertaining and informative, thanks to Dr. White's friendly and engaging presentation style. The tutorials are accompanied by useful notes, and the frequent quizzes support the learning of the very extensive material. His recommendations for learning the material (follow the path, visualize your knowledge, learn spatially and socially) are useful in many other contexts. The materials are supported by a reference texbook, Neuroscience 5th edition from 2012, and a new edition is expected in 2017. Also, the text transcriptions of the video presentations appear to have been generated by machine, and need to be proofread and corrected. In spite of this, they are very useful to review specific points in the videos. Although the course presents a huge amount of material and the discussion forums allow both clarification of issues and questions as well as deepening and extending the knowledge provided by the basic materials in the course. I strongly recommend this course to anyone interested in gaining a basic overview of human neuroscience.

The journey throughout the Nervous System is even more intense and eye-opening than what you can imagine at the beginning. I loved the way Prof. White goes over every topic, sharing part of his personal thoughts and experience, which results in a very welcoming way of conveying information. The optional tools provided are also highly valuable, and the tips that are given all along are very useful when it comes to self-organization and techniques of study. The course is thick: there is much to say, and many times there is no space for everything, but it's a fine start if you do not know very much about Neuroscience. I particulary learnt a lot about anatomy, which is a big deal when understanding the Nervous System. The assessments are "fun": you don't just answer plain questions, but need to use all you've learnt, integrate it, and think to get to an answer. As a little flaw, I would say that in order to answer these questions, there are several things that are not thoroughly developped in the course and yet you must know about (the "pathological" part: diseases, circulatory system - which is quite complex and only approached switftly- etc.).

From a more personal point of view, I've learnt more and better in this course that in some larger in-person courses I had in my career about the topic. Hence, I thank professor White and his crew for the experience. It's worth it!