Drugs and the Brain on Coursera (December 2012 January 2013, including 2-week break) Report as of 8 February 2013

3 (5 d days after th deadline f th l t quiz) ft the d dli for the last i )

2012 California Institute of Technology

Initial weeks: concepts and tools

miniLectures 1-12: Introduction to neuroscience, drugs as chemicals with access to the brain, receptors as proteins, proteins as possible drugs, study of the nervous system, dose-response relations, and electrophysiology

Na+

K+

Week 2 Drugs Activate & Block Ion Channels (mL 13 -16) Synapses

Week 2 Drugs Act on G protein pathways (mL 17 -21)

Week 3: Drugs Act on Transporters (mL 22, 23)

Week 3 Recreational Drugs (mL 24-26)

2

Later weeks: neural diseases

Week 3: Mechanisms of Nicotine Addiction (mL 27 31) Omitted: opioid addiction, cocaine addiction, alcohol addiction
M3-M4 loop

ER
IRE1

Omitted: amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Week 5: Drugs for Psychiatric Diseases Major Depressive Disorder (mL 40-44) Bipolar Disorder (mL 45-47) Schizophrenia (mL 48 -51) 51) Omitted: anxiety disorder, borderline personality disorder

Other omissions: migraine, details on epilepsy

+ BiP PERK

Week 4: Drugs for Neurodegenerative Diseases Alzheimers (mL 32 -34) Parkinsons (35 -39)

H+

Instructional materials

52 miniLectures 10 hours 3 minutes of total material ~60 GB of raw recordings, including Webcam Total of ~ 420 Powerpoint slides Each miniLecture has 2 3 embedded questions Each f the five E h of th fi weeks h one standalone quiz, ~ 20 questions. k has t d l i ti Estimated work load, 4-6 h/wk Overall, equivalent to ~ 4 Caltech units.

Recommended textbook (Nestler, Hyman & Malenka Molecular Neuropharmacology) $50 printed $35 Kindle printed,

Summary numbers of students 4450 students took all 5 quizzes with a passing grade ( > 70%) and will receive Statements of Accomplishment 4409 took the survey reported on the next 2 slides 9100 students logged in to the Web site in a typical week during the 2nd half 64,000 remained registered during the final week of lectures, 67,800 registered at the peak

40% 35% 30% 25%

Ages: 13 to 83

DegreesearnedbyStudents Degrees earned b St dents

(some students may have interpreted the question, highest degree earned)

20% 15% 10% 5% 0%

17% have held fellowships or grants from scientific or medical agencies

Thailand 0.2% Romania Taiwan 1.2% 0.3% 0 3% SouthAfrica 0.5% Slovakia 0.3% Singapore 1.9% Russia 3.0% Switzerland 0.2% Spain 6.2%

>75Countries
Egypt 0.6% Malaysia 0.6% Argentina 0.3% notlisted 5.4% Bangladesh 0.3% Australia 2.9%

Bosnia&Herzegovina 0.1% Belgium 0.3% Belarus 0.3% Bulgaria 0.5% China 0.6% Cambodia Colombia 0.0% 1.4%

CostaRica 0.2% Croatia 0.6% Cyprus 0.1%

Brazil 5.2%

Canada 3.8% Denmark 0.2% France 1.2% Greece 1.8%

Czech Republic 0.7%

Ecuador 0.2%

Venezuela 0.2%

Germany 2.6% 2 6%

India 3.9%

HongKongSAR 0.8% Hungary Indonesia 0.3% 0.3% Iran 0.3%

Italy Israel 1.2% 0.4% Mexico M i 1.7%

Ireland 0.5% Japan 0.3%

USA 31.9%

UK 4.9%

Macedonia Netherlands 0.2% Pakistan 1.1% Portugal Peru 0.6% 2.8% NewZealand 0.5% 0.5% Philippines Serbia S bi 0.6% Poland 0.8% 1.2% Turkey 0.5% Sweden 0.2% Switzerland 0.3%

Ukraine 0.8%

Stude ents submitt ting quiz

15,000

Students submitting quizzes

10,000 ,

5,000

0 1 2 Quiz # 3 4 5

40,000 40 000 35,000

Students viewing video miniLectures

Un nique viewe ers

30,000 25,000 20,000 15,000 10,000 5,000 0 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 8

4450 passed

miniLecture #

Grades
Statistic Total users graded Users who meet distinction criteria (>99% score) Users who meet normal criteria Users who did not meet any criteria # of students 61,120 1140 3310 56,695

Pass

100%

10

Communications 920,000 individual views of the miniLectures ~ 1014 bytes streamed 25,420 unique users submitted embedded video quizzes, For a total of 1 46 X 106 submissions 1.46 submissions. Discussion forums, a vibrant online community: Study groups in 20 countries & 13 languages; Fact -checking (mistakes) in lectures; Technical problems; General discussion on lectures & materials; Caltech Bi/CNS 150 forum; Quiz feedback. Self-policing on revealing answers; Molecular modeling software. 1049 threads, 5549 t t l posts total t 2136 unique users 174,000 total views Students organized a Facebook group and a Twitter feed
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12

Connection with Bi/CNS 150, Introduction to Neuroscience. Henry Lester and Ralph Adolphs 25 of the 43 undergrads chose the option below

Route to Bi/CNS 150 extra credit: a. Enroll for the course. b. If you wish to continue after the first 2 weeks, inform Henry Lester. c. Pass the course. Should be quite easy. d. Contribute to the forums with technical and scientific explanations. e. e Contribute to the Caltech Bi/CNS 150 students forum forum. Result: at least 1/3 grade (i. e., B+ to A-). Retroactive, will not destroy the curve.

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