The spring semester has just ended at Columbia University, which means that my annual virology course has also concluded.
The course met twice weekly, during which time we discussed the basic principles of virology, including how virions are built, how they replicate, and how they cause disease. For the last two lectures of the course we discussed viruses in the public eye, namely XMRV and influenza H5N1.
Each lecture in my virology course was recorded as a videocast and is available at the course website, at iTunes University, or on YouTube. One hundred and eighty-five Columbia University undergraduates registered for the virology course in 2013, but nearly 100,000 individuals have subscribed to the course through iTunes University. I strongly believe that the general public must understand as much as possible about viruses, so they can participate in the debate about issues that impact them, such as vaccination, H7N9, and the new coronavirus CoV-MERS. As I have said before, it is my goal to be Earth’s virology professor, and this is my virology course for the planet.
In August, my Virology course will become the fourth course from Columbia University to be offered as a MOOC (massive open online course) via Coursera. Below is a short video which explains that offering. Click here to register for part I of my Coursera virology course.
When will the course start? I do not see it yet on the Coursera website.
Very excited for the MOOC! 🙂
Looking forward to this on Coursera.
The Coursera MOOC will begin on 1 July. Registration will open up at coursera.org in a week or two. See you there!
This is great! I’m excited for the MOOC. Thanks for the registration link, Professor. 😀
Registration for the virology course on Coursera is now open. Here is the link: https://www.coursera.org/course/virology
This is a great course. It’s really convenient that there are MOOC already available today. Thanks for the link.
Just signed up for this course on Coursera. Super excited and looking forward!
Signed up for the Coursera course (am a Coursera enthusiast), but am watchin’ the YouTube videos now (and up until the course). Maybe it’ll give me a leg up? LOL! Suggestion: Minimal Peer Assessments (but if you must have them, make them creative please) & a decent amount of quizzes and exams (in-video quizzes are fun too).
It says August 1st. ?
Thanks for the suggestions. I will definitely have in-video quizzes as well as standalone quizzes. The people at Coursera have suggested peer assessments but it sounds as though that won’t be so welcome.
Peer assessments are one reason why I drop courses on Coursera. Extremely time consuming and totally pointless. I have completed 3 courses with peer assessment, and I without the peer assessment; and dropped a few with peer assessment. The ones where they don’t have peer assessments, they often have mid term and/ or final exam which is much more appreciated and welcomed.
Thanks for the info, Farheen. I am interested but I don’t know what to expect from this course. I hope I’m not yet late to register