The course was poorly organized. Module items were not due sequentially, so it was difficult to follow the modules and class schedule. Course content had frequent grammatical errors, misspellings, and organizational problems like numbered lists having repeating numbers or incorrect numbers. Assignments outside of Zybooks were poorly written and it was hard to understand what was being asked.

The class is a deep dive in MySQL, database structure, and writing queries. The core content of the class is useful to anyone who will be interacting with a database. Likely it's still very current. However, the bulk of the coursework is done in Zybooks.

I had limited interaction with the professor. Again, most of the work is in Zybooks, and all communication primarily came from TAs.

I think I might have been able to sub out a different class. Just study databases on your own and instead ask your academic advisor to help you select a different class that could count. Waste of money.

The content is random irrelevant stuff and a lot of the exam questions are random things she never covered so you just have to hope you get lucky on those questions

Hardest class I've had in a long time. Exams were very hard and there are barely any assignments. He will test you on the smallest details and on things that are barely understandable on the slides (e.g. a graph) and only talked about in class. The content is interesting but you are expected to know EVERYTHING, and there are no guidelines, no practice, no homework or texbook given so you have no idea what to expect. I studied harder than for any other class and for weeks before the exams and results did not show it (and I usually do well in my classes).

So much content, not clear whats on the exam, slides very confusing.

He is a nice guy and very smart, but expects you to have the same knowledge as him and his expectations are super unreasonable. Does not set students up for success and is very vague on what he will be testing.

Goodluck!

Extremely relevant to those wanting to be a DNA analyst. The textbook is a very good resource and teaches more than the actual class modules. The module content is much more simplified but does not explain everything. Protocols in some of the assignments were vague, causing confusion and maximum penalties on grading. Still a decent class because it goes over all steps in the process of DNA analysis. Quizzes were on module content- fairly easy.

Everything about analysis of DNA: history, QA, extraction, quantitation, amplification, separation (genetic analyzer), data analysis, interpretation, and reporting. You need to read between the lines in some modules, especially when it comes to the data involved and its interpretation. Assignments are mostly multiple questions that require a few sentences- but the assignments follow a case study throughout the semester. Final assignment is a report that is a culmination of everything learned from previous assignments- the template makes it easy though.

Feedback on assignments was often unhelpful. The prof didn't always tell you the correct answer- they would make you try to figure it out yourself which led to argumentative messaging over canvas.

Ask for clarification on assignments ahead of time! They won't pre-grade but if you don't understand the protocol in the later assignments, you really need to ask for clarification or risk multiple points off. Some assignments are related- you need to correct what you got wrong in order to correctly do the next assignment (this relates to the ~4 assignments on the case study). It was a lot of reading, but having 2 weeks for some modules made it bearable.