Interesting but fairly passive learning; weekly requirements are a chapter from the texbook and some "modules" (notes, videos) on BlackBoard. A quiz comes about bi- or triweekly, and three midterms have a significant weight on your grade (but are all open book, so get to know that baby!!!). Good intro, friendly and accessible professor.

The course is wholly from the textbook, a chapter a week. It's an intro to marine biology that focuses on the environment, microscopic organisms up to whales, ecology, and then the different types of ecosystems and how they all work together. Fairly basic stuff; plenty of review from high school - but also some new, fancy science words for animal phyla and the like. Very open-ended project; just put effort in.

Professor seemed very nice. Have not had any issues so far that have required reaching out to him. Leaves interesting videos to watch and summary notes to read; is transparent about what will show up on tests and quizzes and how things are graded.

Just make sure you're comfortable navigating BlackBoard (but it's not rocket science), the glossary of a textbook, and can manage a calendar of your time so you keep up with the reading, quizzes, and exam/project deadlines. It's not always incredibly interesting stuff (it's building a foundation) but other times it definitely can be related to experiences most people have probably had themselves in nature, which is very cool (i.e. anoxia in the deeper sediments of muddy beaches!)