Results of Feedback Form

Jacky Turner (j.turner@mail.cryst.bbk.ac.uk)
Thu, 22 Feb 1996 18:19:54 +0000 (GMT)

Dear PPS'96 Participants,

Many thanks to those of you who sent in replies on the electronic feedback
form. We received 40 feedback forms up to the end of yesterday 21st (out
of a total of 74 students registered on the course).

This is what you said:-

(n.b. the total number of answers does not always add up to 40
because some questions allow multiple answers and some were not answered!)

1. THE PACE OF THE COURSE SO FAR IS:
too fast 17
about right 21
too slow 2

2. THE FOLLOWING ARE USEFUL SOURCES OF ADVICE AND INFORMATION:
email/group discussion lists 36
tutors/coordinators 25
BioMOO meetings 20

n.b. a few of you said that NONE of the above provided useful
advice and information!

3. THE QUANTITY OF ADVICE AND INFORMATION PROVIDED IS:
OK 37
too little 3

4. THE QUALITY OF ADVICE AND INFORMATION PROVIDED IS:
good 24
adequate 13
inadequate 3

5. ARE TECHNICAL ISSUES A PROBLEM?
they are not a problem 14
they take a reasonable amount of time to deal with 18
they take a large amount of time to overcome 5
they are a big problem 2

6. RASMOL INSTALLED:
yes 34
no 5

7. MAGE INSTALLED:
yes 32
no 7

8. WWW BROWSER CONFIGURED FOR CHEMICAL/X-PDB:
yes 31
no 3

9. WWW BROWSER CONFIGURED FOR CHEMICAL/X-KINEMAGE:
yes 29
no 3

10. INTERNET-RELATED DIFFICULTIES:
none 36
problems emailing the course email lists 2
problems emailing group members 2
problems connecting to BioMOO 7
problems accessing WWW pages 4

11. WWW CONNECTION PROBLEMS:
never/rarely 14
occasionally 17
often 4
usually/always 5

These replies give us several points to think about. In particular:-

(i) A number of people (even if they do not have serious
technical problems) tell us that the course is going too fast so far.
We will take note of this. One consideration is that, because the course
is on the Internet rather than taught in conventional class-room style,
people can to some extent work at their own pace - it is not necessary to
keep up with the course material each week as it is presented. The course
itself continues till the autumn. The only deadlines we have put in
during the course are the 2 submitted assignments before
the beginning of term 2 and term 3 - if people think that these deadlines
are too rigid we will reconsider them.

(ii) On the amount of time needed for technical matters - the major
technical hurdles have come at the beginning of the course, as they must
do in order for people to get the most out of the science that follows.
In other words, the worst is probably over in terms of installing
packages, etc.!

(iii) Some people still have technical difficulties relating to installing
RasMol or Mage or configuring their WWW browser. Can we suggest that
those people contact John Walshaw (email: pps2@mail.cryst.bbk.ac.uk) as
soon as possible to explain the difficulty in detail so that we can try to
sort it out.

Please send us any comments you may have on the above. We'll provide
another feedback form in a few weeks,

Best wishes,

PPS'96 Course Coordinators