Re: Results of Feedback Form

peter Murray-rust (p.murray-rust@mail.cryst.bbk.ac.uk)
Thu, 22 Feb 1996 20:29:45 +0000 (GMT)

On Thu, 22 Feb 1996, Jacky Turner wrote:

> 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 most valuable. It's very useful to have this information, because
feedback is so different on the electronic medium. Also, I am thinking
hard about the next course - structure-based drug design that John
Overington and I are putting together and this feedback is really
valuable.
It's early days yet, but here are some thoughts in relation to PPS95 >
> This is what you said:-
>
> (n.b. the total number of answers does not always add up to 40

It's very helpful to let Jacky and the others know if you are still 'on
the course' :-). I know it's difficult - many of you have to travel -
have crises - can't face the computer *again*, etc.

There will always be a small percentage of people who find that they can't
make it through to the end - changing personal circumstances, etc. In
PPS95 quite a few people dropped out, but we expect most people on PPS96
to stay :-). So even if you missed the first chance to fill the form,
it helps to know you are 'out there'

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

Only *you* can tell us this :-). It's important that you don't feel
you're being driven so hard that it isn't fun. Not only is the course
methodology fun, but so are proteins!

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

Really pleased to see the BioMOO figure - higher than PPS95. MOOs have
somewhat unfriednly syntax and we hope that the 'next generation' -
whenever they appear - will be better (integrated graphx, for example.)

>
> 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

Anyone got any figures for real-life courses :-)? I should think a lot of
them don't reach this figure...

> > 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

I hope that you will find that in a few week's time the technical issues
will seem unimportant. Some of this will be due to your learning how to
do things, some because we have been able to help. And they are
real-life problems for all of us - so useful skills for you to learn.

>
> 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
>

well done.

> 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

This is impressive. We had quite a lot of e-mail problems last year and
there seem to be many fewer now.
>
> 11. WWW CONNECTION PROBLEMS:
> never/rarely 14
> occasionally 17
> often 4
> usually/always 5
>
I saw it called the 'World Wide Wait' today :-( Just keep shouting at
your politicians for more bandwidth. (If you think it helps...)
>
> 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.
>

This is very important. *you* must pace yourself as you think fit. If
> (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
>

I've run out of disk space to have to send this msg asis!

Best wishes,

P.

>
>
>
>

Peter Murray-Rust, Glaxo Research & Dev. (pmr1716@ggr.co.uk); (BioMOO: PeterMR)
Birkbeck College, ubcg09q@cryst.bbk.ac.uk, CBMT/Daresbury mbglx@seqnet.dl.ac.uk
http://www.cryst.bbk.ac.uk/PPS/index.html, http://www.dl.ac.uk/CBMT/HOME.html