Hi Maddie - great that you signed up! I really enjoyed that class.
I did use the textbook. It probably wasn't critical - the quizzes really do focus on the material covered in lecture - but I liked that it gave me a broader perspective. You can rent it pretty cheaply on amazon.
For the quizzes, my strategy was to listen to the lectures and take notes, do a quick review of the notes, and take the quiz right away. I would usually take my best guess at an answer and then look it up (in my notes or the printed lecture transcripts) to confirm, and there was plenty of time for that.
I dropped the final 😀
As for hours per week... oh man, too many. Probably a couple hours a week on the textbook, about 2 hours on the lecture and quiz, and then probably 6-10 hours digging into discussion board stuff. You don't have to spend that much time though. I was getting ready for the MCAT and really wanted to understand the material (and also found it interesting!) so I would read an article, then find another article to explain my questions from the first article, and so on and so on. But you're not required to dig that deep. You could probably do your own post and the response to someone else's post in an hour or two if you wanted to keep it simple.
Enjoy the class, and let me know if you have any more questions along the way!
