Take this class if you want to learn real-world application of many of the experimental techniques (Western blotting, histology, etc.) that you have studied in other classes. This class is solely focused on Duchenne muscular dystrophy - you will learn the ins and outs of the disease, from the symptoms and diagnosis to the treatment (medical, psychosocial, behavioral) to the clinical trials and current research. You WILL become an expert on DMD. Many of the guest lecturers for this class are leaders of the field, and you will receive incredibly valuable insight on the disease and how the cure for it is currently being sought after. If you are at all interested in pursuing a career in medicine or healthcare - this is the class for you. This class will teach you able to process of diagnosing the disease, of developing drugs, and of performing clinical trials. The weekly homework is time-consuming, and the video project and clinical review paper are a pain, but they definitely help in understanding the material. I have an immense appreciation for this class and what it has taught me not just regarding DMD, but about medicine in general.

Dr. Crosbie-Watson is an incredible lecturer- very clear and engaging. However, because of the way this course was designed with pre recorded lectures and a different person as the coordinator, she was not available for questions or discussions. The only form of discussion about topics learned in class were with TAs (grad students). I wished we had a portion of the class where we could discuss material/ask questions on a weekly basis with someone more well versed in the material. Very interesting material, but very challenging and heavy workload.

It's a great class especially if you have an interest in medicine as the course provides you with insight into how to diagnose DMD and clinical research treatments that have been adopted to test the disease. However, this class is a lot of work even for a 5 unit online class. The projects, homeworks, papers, nothing is graded leniently making it almost impossible to enjoy the course material.

The material is extremely cool and I really appreciated the multi-disciplinary approach of the course. However, the the work load is insane. The amount of busy work really takes away from enjoying the course and material as well as discourages regular studying because I would spend time doing homework instead of going over the material. My other courses were really hard too, so it was a struggle to remain efficient and learn at the same time. You can get an A if you work hard and pay attention to the lecture videos, but this is definitely not an easy A. Given that, I do feel accomplished completing the course and feel like I gained a lot of knowledge.

Cool class, but extremely dense with a lot of busy work. Take it if you wanna learn about Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, but otherwise can be a total pain.