Free MOOCs? Forget about it.

Remember the halcyon days when MOOCs (massive, online open courses) were going to revolutionize the world, eliminating barriers of class and geography that were preventing hardworking, intelligent people from receiving—and benefitting from—an education?

Over the past month, Coursera has quietly implemented a huge policy change that gives up on that dream.

It will no longer be offering free Statements of Accomplishment to students who successfully complete (pass) Coursera courses.

If you’re a student who wants to share your achievement with current or potential employers, you’ll have to pay for that certificate.

When to give up on a MOOC course

For the first time, I am considering dropping a course more than halfway through completing it. The course is Chemicals and Health – Johns Hopkins University | Coursera, and it has turned out to be quite a disappointment. I was looking forward to learning more about toxicology and how to interpret research to determine the effects of novel chemicals on human health.

Unfortunately, that’s not what I got. There was one excellent unit on toxicology, but the rest of the course really didn’t offer much that interested me. It gave cursory overviews of biomonitoring and the methods  and nomenclature that researchers use when measuring the health effects of chemicals (e.g. acute versus chronic effects,  blood sampling versus urine sampling),  but didn’t ask students to apply any of this knowledge by interpreting research.

The thing that really disappointed me, though, was one of the first homework assignments, which required students to watch “The Story of Cosmetics” on YouTube and then post responses. (I’m not linking the video here because I don’t want to drive any more traffic to it than already exists, but if you are curious about it you can Google it I’m sure you’ll find it.) The video is propaganda against the use of novel chemicals in cosmetics. Now, I actually agree  with the video’s creator that there are chemicals being used in cosmetics that should not be there because they aren’t good for human health and/or cause problems when they enter the sewage system. But I don’t like the videos hand-sweepingly broad classification of sodium lauryl sulfate (a detergent derived from coconut oil that some people are allergic* to but most people handle just fine) along with lead (which is poisonous to every human), or that it doesn’t distinguish between ethyl mercury and methyl mercury (neither of which should be in cosmetics, but one of which is a very useful preservative in medicine that does not linger in the body or cause any of the effects that panickers claim it does.)

Genetic testing conundrums: sickle cell trait

In my Genomic and Precision Medicine course on Coursera, we were asked:

In the US, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) requires screening of all college student athletes for mutations in the gene that causes sickle cell anemia, an autosomal recessive disease that manifests early in life. Name one pro and one con of this policy.

Here’s my answer. It will not win any prizes for eloquence, but it got the job done of summarizing the issues in a few sentences or less. (I cheated and included more than one con):

Pro: Individuals who are carriers for sickle cell anemia (that is, they carry only one copy of the mutated sickle cell gene) do not have sickle cell anemia. However, they are at greater risk of hypoxia (inadequate oxygen supply to a region of the body) and rhabdomyolysis (sudden death of muscle tissue) during intense exercise than non-carriers. These conditions can be life-threatening. By knowing who carries the gene, coaches can alter training programs to reduce risks — for example, by making sure that carriers get rest breaks and don’t get dehydrated.

Con: The sickle cell trait is far more common in African-Americans and Africans than in other groups. In the past, the higher prevalence of sickle cell trait in blacks was used as an excuse to refuse healthy blacks entry into competitive sports and the military. Coaches may offer less rigorous training and playing opportunities to NCAA athletes who are identified as carrying the sickle cell trait, even when these athletes are perfectly healthy. (Although carriers in general are at higher risk for exercise-related complications, risk varies by individual, with some individuals being very affected, and others seeming not to be affected at all.) Professional sports teams may avoid recruiting players with sickle cell trait for fear that they will not perform as well as their non-carrier counterparts. In addition, focusing on sickle cell may distract trainers from preventing other, more common causes of sudden death in athletes, such as undetected heart problems.

Sources:

• Lecture notes from Nussbaum RL and Norton M. Genomic and Precision Medicine, Week 2: Applying Genomics to Medicine. 2015. Coursera.org.
• Lecture notes from Noor M. Introduction to Genetics and Evolution. 2015. Coursera.org.
• Stein R. Colleges mandate sickle cell testing. The Washington Post. 20 Sept. 2010.

I wanted to add that making sure that all athletes get reasonably frequent rest breaks and are taught to avoid dehydration would dramatically reduce rhabdomyolosis risk, plus many other health risks, without requiring testing. But that’s not the question that was asked, so I didn’t. In a world where colleges are okay with putting students at regular risk of concussion and other serious injuries, expecting them to suddenly embrace good preventive health practices might be overly optimisitic.

Brain Anatomy: Internal and Ventral Structures | Cerego

I created another neuroanatomy set today on Cerego:

Brain Anatomy: Internal and Ventral Structures | Cerego.

And here’s a neuroanatomy series I curated:

https://cerego.com/series/4014/learn

Have fun playing!

Brain surface gross anatomy: gyri and sulci | Cerego

I’ve created my first online flashcard set for Foundational Neuroscience using Cerego. Although the course materials include about a bazillion links to various brain atlases and other resources, there are no flashcards among them. So someone had to do it.

I first encountered Cerego when taking Introduction to Anatomy: Musculoskeletal Cases on edX, which integrated flashcards into  the curriculum. I’ve tried other flashcard systems before (for example, Memrise), but definitely prefer Cerego. (I’d like it even more if it had an Android app.)

So enjoy, brainiacs: Brain surface gross anatomy: gyri and sulci.

Autism Awareness Day

Kathryn:

Great post. I accidentally wore blue today without thinking. Time to go change my outfit.

Originally posted on Autismum:

It’s almost the middle of the Easter holidays and I have my hands very full with a very lively Pwd. I thought there’d be no chance of getting anything out but then this happened:

View original 87 more words

Pnemonic devices for remembering anatomical directions

Recently I finished Introduction to Clinical Neurology from University of California – San Francisco on Coursera, and discovered to my surprise that I actually enjoy neurology. Who’da thunk?

Naturally, I went on a binge of signing up for other neurology courses. This week was the start of Foundational Neuroscience for Perception and Action from Duke University on Coursera. I wasn’t worried about it until I got a welcome email last week from course professors warning us that the material was difficult and we should be prepared to work our asses off.  So of course I decided to procrastinate on watching any of the lectures.

Today I’ve watched three lectures, and it turns out not to be as terrifying as the original email made it out to be. So far the concepts are things that anyone with a successful high school biology background, Google, and motivation should be able to master.  I suppose it could get worse, but if I don’t run away screaming in the first week of a course, I tend to finish it.

I want to share some awesome pnemonic devices given in the class notes for remembering anatomical directions and that I wish had been shared in AnatomyX – Musculoskeletal Cases, an introductory human anatomy course from Harvard on EdX that was otherwise absolutely awesome. Also some of my own ones mixed in:

• rostral/caudal: Rostral comes from the Latin word “nose” and means “toward the nose“; caudal means “toward the tail.” Their reference is the long axis of the central nervous system, which is angled.
• coronal (frontal) plane: Its reference is to the long axis of the body, which is straight (i.e. perpendicular to flat ground when a person is standing up straight). Divides the body into front and back. You can remember it by thinking of a tiara-syle crown (corona), which is heavily decorated on the front and bare in the back.
• sagittal plane: Its reference is to the long axis of the body. Divides body into left and right (the sagittal view is the side view of the body). Think of Sagittarius, an archer, and how the archer holds a bow in the sagittal plane.
• axial (horizontal) plane: Perpendicular to the long axis of the body, and parallel to the ground or horizon in a person standing up straight. 
• ventral/dorsal: Their reference is the long axis of the central nervous system. Dorsum is Latin for “back.” Ventral is from the Latin for “belly.” So ventral is toward the belly, and dorsal is toward the back. (Well, usually. Because humans stand on hind legs, dorsal also refers to the top of the head. Think of cats instead of humans to make remembering this one easier. The top of a cat’s head is on the same side of its spine as its back is, so the “top” in that case can be thought of as “back.”)
• anterior/posterior: Their reference is to the long axis of the body. “ante-” as in “antenatal” and “antebellum” means “before” -> before the center of the body -> “toward the front side.” Posterior is even easier to remember, because we already use that term to  mean “backside.”
• superior/inferior: Superior is the tops, inferior is at the bottom. So superior means toward the top of the body, and inferior means toward the bottom.