Hey everyone. I'm just posting a community service announcement: Stay the heck away from UC Berkeley (and probably all other) online biochem courses. Also stay away from their Anatomy class. I was in the biochem and did well but only because I went almost directly against the explicit instructions of the professor and course. The book they use is a true joke--utterly pathetic. The online material that is provided is equally useless. More times than I can remember the instructions said that something was "beyond the scope of this course" and yet the essay questions at the end of each module SPECIFICALLY asked you to elaborate on that exact topic e.g: The online notes for the lipids module said: "The study of lipid metabolism...lies outside the scope of this course." Guess what one of the module essay questions was?: Biosynthesis and oxidation of lipids (fatty-acids). Like I said I did well, 90+ in all assignments, BUT that was ONLY because I bought 5+ extra biochem books and studied my ass off almost every day of the week. Was that necessary? Could I maybe have gotten away with submitting regurgitated, hackneyed responses? Perhaps, but that's not how I like to do things if I can help it. When I asked the professor for help or alternate sources of material I was given vague replies. I think the teacher is a good person and is just dealing with truly, horrifically bad and poorly structured course material.
Don't even bother on the anatomy course with Dr. Smiley. Seriously. Don't even bother. It's the first year it's out and the school (and maybe prof) DO NOT have their s**t together. I can elaborate but suffice it to say it's hundreds of questions that are not related to the book and there is no way to check your work. There is no physical lab and the provided material is worse than garbage, it's almost intentionally contrary and confounding. When questioned, the teacher replied: " It's not so much that you get the right answer or understand the material but that you are asking questions". That's unacceptable. I'm not weaving baskets or body painting at a music festival here. There are objective answers and there needs to be a way to check your progress especially in an online environment with no real classmates and with everyone working at a different pace. The fact that these simple realities were completely overlooked by the teacher and staff really gave me a bad feeling. Plus it took him over a week to reply and his answers were cryptic at best. As you can tell these courses have equalled and occasionally surpassed my worst previous academic experiences.
Take this post however you want to. If I had read something like this I would not have taken the class. Trust me the quality of education, structure and just general all around experience is going to be better anywhere else. It's not worth the ass-pain. Trust me. PM me if you want any details.
Once again, it is doable but don't expect any help or guidance from the course. Also expect to teach yourself every aspect of the material, not know if what you're doing is too much, not enough or totally off point and generally feel pissed at yourself for thinking that an online course would be more convenient than a regular class. The teacher does the best she can but there's only so much leeway a professor has when she's forced to use crap material I guess. A true disappointment, waste of energy, time and money.
Don't even bother on the anatomy course with Dr. Smiley. Seriously. Don't even bother. It's the first year it's out and the school (and maybe prof) DO NOT have their s**t together. I can elaborate but suffice it to say it's hundreds of questions that are not related to the book and there is no way to check your work. There is no physical lab and the provided material is worse than garbage, it's almost intentionally contrary and confounding. When questioned, the teacher replied: " It's not so much that you get the right answer or understand the material but that you are asking questions". That's unacceptable. I'm not weaving baskets or body painting at a music festival here. There are objective answers and there needs to be a way to check your progress especially in an online environment with no real classmates and with everyone working at a different pace. The fact that these simple realities were completely overlooked by the teacher and staff really gave me a bad feeling. Plus it took him over a week to reply and his answers were cryptic at best. As you can tell these courses have equalled and occasionally surpassed my worst previous academic experiences.
Take this post however you want to. If I had read something like this I would not have taken the class. Trust me the quality of education, structure and just general all around experience is going to be better anywhere else. It's not worth the ass-pain. Trust me. PM me if you want any details.
Once again, it is doable but don't expect any help or guidance from the course. Also expect to teach yourself every aspect of the material, not know if what you're doing is too much, not enough or totally off point and generally feel pissed at yourself for thinking that an online course would be more convenient than a regular class. The teacher does the best she can but there's only so much leeway a professor has when she's forced to use crap material I guess. A true disappointment, waste of energy, time and money.
)...I'll just post it anyway so you get the gist without me rewriting it aimed at you. 
