Following the Course

Some "chapters" will last for more than one week; the duration of each section will depend to some extent on how the student class as a whole finds it is progressing with it; the Internet medium lends allows the course to have a degree of flexibility.

The instructions we give you will also include what you should be familiar with by the end of the chapter, and which Web pages you should look at. Some of the material is of course at sites other than Birkbeck. Its easy to wander (dare I say "surf") on the World Wide Web, so we will tell you which links we think you should definitely look at. Beyond that, by all means check out other sites leading on from these, as some of you will definitely find sites which are very relevant to the course, but which we don't know about- so let us know. Bear in mind what Peter M-R said in his Welcome to Students.

For those of you new to the Web though, the other side of the coin is that its possible for people to produce WWW-pages containing just about anything they like- so remember that just because somethings on the Web, doesnt necessarily mean its accurate.

Notes About the Course Material.

Technical Problems

Difficulties with accessing the Course Web Pages, and with e-mail

If technical problems arise at your end so that you are absolutely unable to look at the WWW pages, and you are sure the difficulty is more than very short-term, e-mail us (if you can) to let us know- send a message to your tutor, to pps2, or to Jody McGill. On the other hand, if you find you have problems sending e-mail, but can access the Web, it may be possible to contact us by leaving a message on the Interactive Noticeboard.

If you can't make contact at all via the Internet (and its not just a brief interruption), fax or phone us.

If you ever try accessing a page, and eventually end up with an error message, note what it says in that error message. It may well be worth making another attempt to load it, or just waiting a while until Internet traffic has eased up.

If you are finding delivery of pages particularly slow, be sure to use the text-only versions of index pages in the course hypertree. If you find you are consistently having problems, we will be able to provide a packaged form of each section of course material, which you can download in one go so that you can browse it locally.

During the course we will make every effort to ensure that all our Web pages are World-readable and that all links work correctly. However we're only human ;) so if you're sure we've made a mistake, mail pps2.

Nightmare Scenario

Who to contact - by e-mail

Otherwise, as a guide,

• if you have a comment/request/query which is Web-related, mail John Walshaw at pps2@mail.cryst.bbk.ac.uk. For example, details of material you have that you'd like us to mount on our server; if you have suggestions for links to be added to pages, it will usually be appropriate to send them to the relevant Discussion List

• changes of e-mail address should also be sent to pps2

• if it concerns your personal progress and studies, mail your Tutor at Birkbeck.
  • Adenine group: Julia Goodfellow, Beatrice Gorinsky
  • Cytosine group: Jacky Turner
  • Guanine group (including Hypoxanthine sub-group): David Moss
  • Thymine group: Jim Pitts
  • Uracil group: Bonnie Wallace ,Bob Janes

If you can't e-mail us:

Our fax no:

or even...