Alright, here goes. Keep in mind I'm just one guy and this is merely my anecdotal view of the course.
The first unit is brutal, long, painful, and contains so much material it left me struggling. It covers 16 chapters of reading material, on everything from acids, bases, and buffers, to the structure of DNA and its synthesis, to amino acids and protein synthesis. Since I'd been out of school for quite some time at this point, I found myself completely overwhelmed by the volume of material to be covered in the six weeks allotted for the unit (there are 16 units, so you have to finish each unit in just under a week in order to have time to also have time to study for the unit tests). Looking back, if I had used the study guide for unit one and reviewed all of the module quizzes I probably would have been fine, but I went totally overboard and reread most of the chapters and watched all of the lectures again for good measure. Save yourself some time by printing out the study guide and writing out an elaboration or explanation of every bullet point on it, retake each quiz until you know them by heart, and do all of the in-book end of chapter quizzes and you should be fine. Oh, she also focused pretty heavily on the diseases mentioned throughout the chapters, so make sure to focus on those as well. I would also do a marathon session in which you rewatch all of the lectures prior to taking the exam, as it will significantly improve your ability to choose the right answers quickly (not that speed is really an issue- you are given more than enough time to complete the exam in my opinion) which gives you time to double-check everything before you submit.
The second unit was still difficult, but much less so than the first. It covers 9 chapters of material in 4 weeks, a far more manageable number. Again, if you study the study guide thoroughly and write out the answers to every problem list every pathway noted, do all of the end of chapter and module quizzes until you know them better than you know your own family, and do a marathon session in which you re-watch the lectures prior to the test, you should be fine. Test 2 is the proctored one, which was really easy to set up and use. You just connect to ProctorU via webcam, they ask you to show them your room and workspace real quick via the webcam and a mirror to make sure it is all clear of study materials, and then you are good to go. You have to sign up a week in advance, but it's really easy to move so long as you do it in a timely fashion, and allows you to schedule for basically any time of day.
I'm almost done with unit 3, which is even easier than the previous 2 so far, and covers 7 chapters of material in 3 weeks. Either the questions have gotten easier as the course has moved along, or I have adjusted to her teaching and testing style and it just feels easier. In any case, modules 11 and 12 were cake, though module 13 looks pretty hefty (covers 4 of the 7 chapters and deals with gluconeogenesis and blood glucose maintenance). I haven't done unit 4 yet, but it looks pretty chill, covering 6 chapters in 3 weeks, with another proctored exam at the end. Overall, I'd say the course started out feeling 9/10 on the difficulty scale, but now feels more like a 4/10. You should easily get a passing grade if you apply yourself (C or better), and if you put in some work, a B or low A is totally possible. Just make sure you have the time to read the book- she pulls a lot of questions about diseases from the book, while only brushing over them in lecture- and use her provided study guides. Also, each of the 16 modules has about an hour of lectures you must watch. The best way to fill out the study guides is to watch her lectures a second time, following along with the guide and filling it in every time she goes over one of its points. Oh, and UNE is very lax about the extensions, so if you need an extra 10-16 weeks, they'll give it to you. But you only get ONE extension, if you aren't complete by your final extension deadline, you fail the course, so just ask for the longest extension they will give you right out if you need one. You will learn a lot from this course, but it will require a lot of time and effort, so be ready to apply yourself and hit the books pretty regularly.
I have Prof. LeClair, who I have heard is quite accessible if you need to contact her.
I would recommend the course to those that have time to invest in it, but to those with a course schedule already full with science courses, I would be careful. Perhaps a person taking a full course load could complete the course with an extension over 26-32 weeks, but it's just too time intensive to complete on the regular 16 week timetable if you're really busy to begin with IMO. Good luck to you all.
