Many thanks to those of you (students) who filled in the 2nd feedback form
during April.
We've now put together the results of the 28 replies which I'll set out
further down this mail and will put on the Web later.
It's good to see that most of you think most things are going OK most of the
time and that you find the email discussion lists and the BioMOO meetings
useful! We're setting up a program of BioMOO meetings for this term and
I'll mail you about the first 3 weeks later today.
On the other hand some of you feel that there is not enough contact with
other people in the course and/or that you are not getting enough
tutoring in some subjects. This is clearly the case for the use of
databases, since a lot of people have not managed to download their
'personal' PDB file and do the protein composition assignment. To start to
deal with this problem, John Walshaw will run BioMOO session on an
introduction to databases next Wednesday 8th May. Anyone who can't get
to that session can mail us individually to discuss problems and get
specific advice.
To deal with how to keep contact and discussion going between people
on the course, we have to make better use of the email discussion lists and
BioMOO. One of you, for instance, suggests informal 'coffee break'
discussions in BioMOO - this is a great idea, but someone has to suggest
a date and time and post it on your group lists or on pps96-general!
Please can we urge anyone who feels she/he is not getting enough advice and
interaction from the course tutors or from John and Jacky, to mail us
personally so that we can try to help.
Best wishes, PPS96 Coordinators
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Feedback form 2 results follow below. Total number of replies = 28 but
some questions permit multiple answers.
1. THE PACE OF THE COURSE SO FAR IS:
Too fast 5
About right 23
Too slow 0
2. THE FOLLOWING ARE USEFUL SOURCES OF ADVICE;
Course email discussion lists 24
Tutors/coordinators 18
BioMOO meetings 20
3. THE AMOUNT OF INTERACTION WITH TUTORS/COORDINATORS IS:
Too little 10
OK 18
4. THE QUALITY OF ADVICE PROVIDED IS:
Good 19
Adequate 9
Inadequate 0
5. HOW MUCH OF A PROBLEM ARE TECHNICAL ISSUES?
Not a problem 16
They require a reasonable amount of time 12
They require a large amount of time 0
They are a big problem 0
6. HAVE YOU GOT RASMOL INSTALLED?
Yes 28
No 0
7. IS YOUR BROWSER CONFIGURED FOR MIME CHEMICAL X-PDB?
Yes 25
No 3
8. HAVE YOU GOT MAGE INSTALLED?
Yes 26
No 2
9. IS YOUR BROWSER CONFIGURED FOR MIME CHEMICAL X-KINEMAGE?
Yes 23
No 3
10. HAVE YOU DOWNLOADED YOUR 'PERSONAL' PDB FILE SUCCESSFULLY?
No 28
Yes 0
11. HAVE YOU WORKED THROUGH THE PROTEIN COMPOSITION ASSIGNMENT?
No 28
Yes 0
12. REASONS FOR NOT BEING ABLE TO COMPLETE THE PROTEIN COMPOSITION ASSIGNMENT:
Difficulties with the use of databases 21
Lack of time 7
Difficulty understanding contents of PDB file 2
Difficulty understanding crystallography 1
(Not specified) 5
13. DO YOU HAVE ANY OF THE FOLLOWING INTERNET-RELATED PROBLEMS?
None 23
Problems emailing tutors/coordinators 0
Problems emailing course lists 0
Problems emailing group 0
Difficulty in accessing WWW pages 1
Problems connecting to BioMOO 5
14. DO YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THE SPEED OF YOUR CONNECTION TO THE COURSE
WEB PAGES?
Never/rarely 14
Occasionally 10
Often 3
Usually/always 1
15. WHICH HAVE YOU FOUND THE MOST RELEVANT/USEFUL SECTION OF THE COURSE SO FAR?
Primary structure (Sect. 2) 7
Protein geometry/molecular viewers (Sect. 3) 14
Protein synthesis (Sect. 4) 1
Intro. to bioinformatics (Sect. 5) 6
Web authoring (Sect. 6) 0
16. WHICH HAVE YOU FOUND THE LEAST RELEVANT/USEFUL SECTION SO FAR?
Primary structure (Sect. 2) 9
Geometry/molecular viewers (Sect. 3) 0
Protein synthesis (Sect. 4) 11
Intro. to bioinformatics (Sect. 5) 2
Web authoring (Sect. 6) 6
17. HOW USEFUL IS BIOMOO?
Never used BioMOO during this course 2
Have tried using BioMOO but not found it useful 1
Useful for interaction with other course members
but not for discussing science and technical issues 6
Useful for discussing science and technical issues 19
18. WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING SUBJECTS WOULD YOU LIKE BIOMOO MEETINGS ON?
Use of databases 21
Structure determination using NMR 16
Protein crystallography 21
RasMol 28
Mage, Prekin and Kinemages 26
Other multimedia formats 6
Sequence data 15
Web authoring 10
Other requests for meetings:
Protein families e.g. immunoglobulins
Molecular modelling of protein interactions
Introductory tutorials on above topics
Molecular phylogenetics
FAQ sessions
Informal discussions during coffee breaks
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