Peer Review

9.011 The Brain and Cognitive Sciences I

Material Detail page

Reviewed:: Dec 17, 2012 by Biology

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Ratings

Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:: This is online 2002 neurophysiology course from MIT Open Courseware. It is material given during the first term of a two term course for first year graduate students in neuroscience. This particular course covers the motor system, visual system, auditory system, learning, memory, sleep, and cognition. Only material is the lecture outline for the first five lecturers, along with the assigned readings for the course.
Type of Material:: Online course
Recommended Uses:: The readings could be used for a historical overview of the mammalian nervous system from the late 1990s to early 2000s.
Technical Requirements:: None
Identify Major Learning Goals:: A detailed understanding of the neural functions of the mammalian brain
Target Student Population:: Graduate students in neurophysiology.
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:: BS in molecular and cellular biology

Content Quality

Rating:

Strengths:

Good selection of readings from the turn of the century.
Potentially good material Well known neuroscientists provide content

Concerns:

The user only has access to abstracts
No content, readings are 10 years out-of-date.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:

Strengths:

Topics are listed
Readings are listed
Topics are listed Readings are listed

Concerns:

No explanations for the papers or any lecture content, so only someone familiar with the field could get anything out of the papers.
Not much else besides a reading list

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:

Strengths:

Simple layout
Simple web interface

Concerns:

Downloaded material was unusable

Other Issues and Comments:: There was a link to download material. I wasn’t able to download the material using Chrome or Firefox. I could download material using IE, but it was unusable. I don’t know if it contains any material that is different to what was online I was disappointed in the site. I'm sure it is fine for what it was designed for, but it didn't have enough material for an individual user. This ends up being nothing more than just a reading list. Abstracts for the papers were available, but the papers themselves weren’t. The choice of reading is fine, but the user will have to get the articles themselves. This is probably fine in the context of the course it was designed for. The course includes lectures and student discussion based on the reading material. An instructor could reference the same material, but overall I don't find this site very usable.
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