COURSE FACTS
When does the course start? October 4, 2021
When does it end? December 13, 2021
Who is the instructor? Sarah Maurer, Associate Professor, Central Connecticut State University
Who is the teaching assistant? Maria Kalambokidis, Course materials developer and teaching assistant
COURSE SCHEDULE
PROGRAM SUPPORT
How much does it cost? Nothing. The course is completely free.
How is the course funded? The course is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF Grant No. 1745355) Research Coordination Network on Exploration of Life's Origins, the Santa Fe Institute (SFI)], and by donations from users. In order to support future courses, we will be asking for small, voluntary donations to cover the costs of developing and providing those courses.
PREREQUISITES
Who is the intended audience and what are the prerequisites?
Anyone is who is interested in the origins of life with varying degrees of past training. The prerequisites for individual lectures range from none at all to basic calculus, chemistry, biology, and physics. This course will likely be understandable for upper-level undergraduates and beyond. This is an excellent introduction to established scientists who want to start thinking about the origins of life.
COURSE CONTENT
The course is composed of six modules, each with about one hour of video content, accompanied by journal articles, activities, and assignments.
- Introduction. Designed to give students an overview of the content and motivate the students by describing interesting lines of inquiry
- Chemical origins. An overview of the chemicals that likely lead to life, and the environments that shaped them here on Earth, but also within the solar system.
- Chemical Commonalities. What do living things have in common and how can we use these similarities to understand first life.
- Early Life. Some ideas of what the earliest forms of life may have looked liked.
- Evolution. How did life change from its first stages to the Last Universal Common Ancestor, and into what we see today.
- Astrobiology. Thoughts on how life could originate and evolve elsewhere.
COURSE DESIGN & USE
How does the course work? Each unit consists of a series of short videos, with each video corresponding to subtopics of the unit's main topic. The course website leads you through the videos in order, allowing you to skip or repeat videos as you desire. You can watch these videos at your own pace and in any order you desire; once posted, they will remain available throughout the course. The videos are interspersed with quizzes, designed to test your understanding of the material covered in the previous video. At the end of most units, there is a test (graded automatically).
COURSE LENGTH
How long does the course last? 10 weeks. We expect that participants will complete about one-half to one unit per week; some will move through the material more quickly, and some more slowly. The videos and other course material will stay online after the course ends.
HOMEWORK, QUIZZES & TESTS
What about homework exercises and quizzes? Many videos are followed by short homework exercises or quizzes that you can do online and that is graded automatically. These exercises and quizzes won’t count towards your final grade; their purpose is to allow you to try out simulations, to see how well you have understood the material in the video, and to see what you might need to review.
What about the tests? Most units will be followed by a test. You will take the tests online, and they will be graded automatically. Some of the problems on these tests will depend on your successful completion of the programming tasks in that unit's homework exercises. Your grade for the course will be based on these tests and the peer-reviewed assignment (see below), each of which counts equally. Everyone who submits all the tests, the peer-reviewed assignment, and receives an average score of 60% or above (i.e., averaged over all tests) will receive a certificate of completion. You may use any of the course materials while taking the test and doing the peer-reviewed assignment, but we request that you do not consult other people or the Web for answers.
PEER-REVIEWED ASSIGMENT
How does the peer review system work? At the end of this course, there will be a synthesis assignment, which you will submit work to be reviewed by your peers, and you will also be expected to review assignments your peers submit.
In order to pass the peer review section, you need to do two things:
1. Submit your assignment before the submission deadline.
2. Review three other students' assignments after the submission deadline and before the evaluation deadline.
Once the peer-review assignment has been created, you can find the peer-review section(s) quickly by clicking on the "My Progress" tab, and then clicking on the appropriate section of the Homework/Exam column.
To submit an assignment, upload the document. Make sure your name is not on your assignment.
To evaluate other students' assignments, after the submission deadline is passed, go to the peer review section and you will be prompted to download a file with one assignment. Follow the rubric, put comments in the comment box (this is required), and submit. You will then be given a second assignment to review, and then a third. Check the submission number of the ZIP file you download and make sure it matches what is displayed on the screen. Do one assignment review completely to avoid accidentally evaluating the wrong assignment! Make sure you have done all the reviews before the evaluation deadline in order to receive your full score.
You should receive a reminder email about the submission and evaluation deadlines 24 hours before they are due. It is your responsibility to make sure you complete the work by the deadline - the deadline will be listed on the peer review section, in emails, on the forum, and the instructor may bring it up during office hours.
How are peer review segments graded? When you submit an assignment for peer review, you will receive an average grade based on the evaluations your peers will give you, which will count as 2/3 of your grade. The remaining 1/3 of the grade is given to you when you complete three evaluations for your peers.
Here is an example scenario:
You submit your assignment and go ahead and evaluate three other assignments. You get 1/3 of the total points, so ~33.3%.
Your peers evaluate your assignment and give you an average score of 80%, which counts towards 2/3 of your total score, so ~53.3%.
Your total score for the peer review is therefore ~ 86.6%.
I completed three evaluations, why do I keep seeing more submissions to review? We require three evaluations from you, however, we will keep offering you optional submissions to review to help us ensure that every submission is reviewed at least three times. You can review as many submissions as you like, or you can stop after three and continue on with the rest of the course.
GRADES
How is the course graded? As described above, your grade will be based on the end-of-unit tests and the end of course peer-reviewed assignment. Your total course score will be your average score over these tests and the peer-reviewed assignment. Since the course is not for credit, your scores are meant to be for your own tracking of your progress in the course. They will not be seen by anyone but you, and possibly our course team.
CERTIFICATES
How well do I need to do to receive a certificate, and will the certificate list my grade? You need to have submitted all of the end-of-unit tests and the peer-reviewed assignment, with an average score of 60% or greater (i.e., averaged over all tests and the peer-reviewed assignment), by the course end date in order to receive a certificate of successful completion. Note: You don't need to get 60% or greater on each test, only on the average overall tests. The certificate will not list your total score; it will simply say that you have successfully completed this course. You will be able to print out a copy of your progress report at any time during or after the course.
Can I get university credit for this course? No, not at this time. It is possible that in the future we may be able to partner with colleges and universities so as to offer our courses for credit, but there is currently no mechanism for this.
Will I get any kind of certificate? Everyone who successfully finishes the course will receive a certificate of completion from the Santa Fe Institute.
COURSE MATERIALS
Is there a required textbook? No textbook is required. The lectures will be complemented by suggested readings that will be provided on the course web site.
Will the videos and other course material be available after the course ends? Yes. After the course ends it will be on our "Archived Courses" list, under "Online Courses". You can always access the lecture videos through the YouTube playlist.
RESOURCES
In what ways am I allowed to use these resources? All the materials on this site are available for your use for any non-commercial purpose. All materials (videos, code, write-ups, etc.) are covered by the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ ). This states that you may copy, distribute, and transmit the work under the condition that you give attribution to ComplexityExplorer.org, and your use is for non-commercial purposes.
SUBTITLES AND TRANSCRIPTS
Are subtitles available? The Complexity Explorer Project has an on-going project in which users volunteer to create subtitles in different languages. If subtitles are available for a given video they can be accessed in the following way. First, start and pause the video. A toolbar will now be visible along the bottom of the video. Second, click on the gear-shaped button located directly to the right of the “CC” button. A list of available languages will be shown in the middle drop-down menu located in the box the opens after hitting the gear-shaped button. Select the language you would like to use for subtitles and click on it.
How do I download and use subtitles offline? You can download videos and available subtitles to watch offline if you wish. Information on downloading videos is located below under technical requirements. In order to make the subtitles you download play with the video, you will need to go through a few steps. Our suggested method is detailed in this help document. Click the link to download the instructional pdf.
Can I download a plain text transcript of the video? For any video that has subtitles available, there will also be a plain text transcript (in .txt format) available for download, for each subtitle language available. When you click on Subtitles & Transcripts you will be given all of the language options available, and you can choose to download either the subtitle or the transcript, or both.
ENROLLMENT
Do I have to enroll to take the course? Yes, you need to enroll in order to access any of the course materials, such as supplementary materials, quizzes and exams. However, enrollment is easy, quick, and free!
How do I enroll? Go to http://complexityexplorer.org, then to Online Courses, and click the “Enroll” button next to this course. You will be guided through the short enrollment process, and then can immediately begin taking the course.
Can I enroll after the course begins? Yes, but to receive a grade and a certificate you must register and submit the exams before the end of the course and complete the peer-review tasks before December 13, 2021.
TIME COMMITMENT
How much time does the course require? You should expect to spend 4-8 hours per week watching videos and taking quizzes and tests.
COLLABORATION
What are the rules on collaboration with other people? You are free, and encouraged, to discuss anything with anyone! The course website hosts an online forum for students to discuss the course material, homework, etc. However, we ask that the end-of-unit tests be taken entirely on your own, without collaboration with others. Of course, we are relying on the honor system for our students to abide by these rules.
What is this Forum you've been talking about? The course website hosts a forum in which course participants can post questions, answers, and otherwise discuss the course materials. Questions posted to this forum will be answered by the instructor, teaching assistant, and/or other students.
TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS
How do I get the videos to play at a faster rate (e.g., 2x)? Our videos are streamed through YouTube. You can opt-in on YouTube for their html5 player, which allows you to speed up or slow down videos. To opt in, go to http://www.youtube.com/html5.
Can I download the videos directly, rather than watching them via YouTube? In most cases, yes. Click on the "Download" button that appears above the video screen on the page for each video. We will also make all the videos for each unit available as zip files on the Supplementary Materials page.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
What if I have more questions? Please address any other questions you have to origins@complexityexplorer.org.