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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Bugs 101: Insect-Human Interactions by University of Alberta

4.9
stars
1,337 ratings

About the Course

Of all the animals on earth, which are the strongest for their size? What about the fastest? Who were the first animals to evolve flight? Insects take all of these titles and more! As the most abundant animals on the planet, insects and other arthropods affect our lives in so many ways. From beneficial interactions like pollination and biological pest control, to the transmission of life threatening diseases; this course will teach you about the big ways that these little arthropods impact our lives. In Bugs 101: Insect-Human Interactions, you will be plunged into the diverse (and sometimes alien) world of arthropods to learn how they work, what they do, and how insects and humans interact every day. After completing this course, you will be able to: Describe the evolutionary relationships between insects and their arthropod relatives Inventory major groups of insects and their diversity Demonstrate evolutionary adaptations that make insects successful Discuss insect biology and human-insect interactions Evaluate positive and negative interactions between insects and humans Propose practical and symbolic roles insects play in human societies...

Top reviews

AB

Jul 7, 2020

Very interesting and specially the anchors of this course are very enthusiastic and encouraging throughout the course so my focus is maintain for bugs and surly I will search more on insects further.

MM

Nov 19, 2020

An absolutely fantastic course with logically set-out modules and enthusiastic, inspiring and engaging presenters. Very useful for anyone involved in Science outreach and/or widening participation.

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26 - 50 of 567 Reviews for Bugs 101: Insect-Human Interactions

By Lia K

Jan 2, 2021

Very interesting course,a fun way to learn about insects with accurate and useful information!

By H H

Aug 3, 2020

U of A really dedicated their time and effort to create this excellent on-line course. Thanks!

By Maria S

May 4, 2020

Best course I've ever taken on entomology! Amazing professors and delivery of information.

By Diana C H

Nov 23, 2020

Es un curso muy completo, dinámico, interactivo y de gran interés, felicitaciones.

By Brian H

Jan 5, 2021

Closed captioning was very helpful. Thank you. However, please consider having longer sentences in cc ( slightly smaller font) so that if I missed a word it wouldn't disappear so quickly.

The GLOSSARY was amazingly helpful. Wow. Thank you.! BRILLIANT!

Interviews were AWESOME and lent variety and interest to 'flesh-out' the course.

THEORIES without EXAMPLES were difficult to remember. For instance, Hector Caracamo gave many excellent theories that were hard to remember because there were no concrete examples provided.

Somewhere on the screen you should keep your names, the presenters, so that we can be reminded of who you are while you are presenting. We want to remember your names.

A couple of photo mistakes - when you were referring to light pollution affecting moths the picture is of a butterfly. And, a beautiful red butterfly pictured on a large green leaf - has a pin in it. Gotcha!

The reference to the Chipewayan tribe is a no-no. They prefer to be known as Dene. (Chipewayan is how the Cree refer to them, and is NOT complimentary)

Peter Heule is SUPERB in his interviews, convincing me to take my granddaughters to his museum.

By Alyssa N S

Aug 9, 2020

I love bugs and this course only solidified that! It's nice to be around other people who have the same interest and passion for these alien-like creatures all around us. My only complaint is that it is difficult if not impossible to contact anyone for questions. There is a discussion board but people have to decide to answer your questions... you can see how many people view your question and decide not to answer. Thank you for this adventure <3

By John H

Sep 26, 2019

A good basic overview of the insects (and some other arthropods); I would have preferred more time spent considering insect diversity and behaviour, and rather less on control methods; maybe this could be covered in Bugs 102? Unfortunately the presentation was very dated with the rather wooden speakers sitting in front of the camera apparently reading from the auto-cue.

By João L

Dec 25, 2022

I would have liked a bit more depth when it comes to anatomy and phisiology and maybe not as much context when it comes to cultural facts, IPM, etc.

But it was a very well-made course regardless.

By Teddi T

Jun 29, 2020

I think the try it yourself sections were pretty interesting, however content felt to be really memory based which feells very overwhelming

By Joy S

Nov 22, 2019

Excellent class full of great information. Very comprehensive. Would give 5 stars, but the whole bug thing is still kind of creepy.

By Oliver Z

Jun 4, 2021

Very educational, but the people teaching us were a little boring.

By Matt P

Apr 30, 2020

I am an environmental educator/nature educator, and I was looking for a course that could help me further my interest in and very limited knowledge of insects (both for personal interest and professional development). Thank you to the staff for making a great course. It was filled with quality made videos, impressive amounts of interviews with relevant professionals, and well explained concepts that I could understand even though I didn't have a large amount of previous knowledge. Part of what makes the course great is that the staff (shout out to Iian) keeps this class "live" by responding to student posts with thoughtful comments. I am happy I took this, and I learned a great deal about the basic biology of insects, their roles in an ecosystem, plenty of interesting facts about specific insects, how they interact with humans in a medical/cultural/agricultural setting, as well as many "teachable moments" where the material inspired my own independent and significant thoughts on things such as medical and economic disparity across the world.

Oh, and I have new favorite insects: froghoppers and treehoppers (they can experience and survive several hundred times earth gravity when they jump, and treehoppers look REALLY cool), and trilobite beetles. Its hard to choose just one insect!

By Carolyn S

Jan 17, 2021

This was a tremendously worthwhile course; very well organized, with plenty of time in the first weeks on insect anatomy, etc. to give a firm grounding for the applications of knowledge to such issues as controlling disease-spreading by insects, or crop damage. The importance of arthropods' contributions to our entire ecosystem, and the various conservation efforts, were explained in detail and nuance. All four of the instructors were engaging, focused, and let their own personalities and enthusiasm for the topics come through. References and links to recent research, artworks, and educational outreach efforts added depth. I was impressed with the University of Alberta's resources, including their links with local government officials, agricultural enterprises, and other businesses connected with insects. An outstanding course. My main take-away for action was the crucial importance of HABITAT for insect survival, and the need for humans to step up our work to preserve and protect habitats that are home to so many wondrous fellow beings.

By Danielle G

Nov 3, 2022

I decided to do this course because I got really into Lepidoptera this past summer, and I wanted to learn more about them. What I didn't expect was to fall in love with insects as a whole! I enjoyed every second of this course, truly. It was very informative, and the information was given in fun and accessible ways. I usually struggle with courses done through videos, but I never did with this one. The lecturers were all wonderful, and you could really tell they're passionate about this, which of course makes it even better. I learned so many things that I didn't know before, and things I never would have thought existed. I have come out of this course with a deeper appreciation, respect, and love for insects; I can't wait to encounter more in my daily life and put my knowledge to the test! I think everyone should do this, or at least learn about insects in whatever way they can. It will absolutely change your perception of them for the better.

By Garrett G

Jan 22, 2021

Wow super excellent. The tech is phenomenal, video speed up, on screen caption, screen capture with notes, karoke like word hopping on the video text if you want to just read the script with really watching the video. Hook your laptop to a bigger screen like a 27 inch, i am using a 22 right now. Multiple screens would be nice so you can keep a glossary or something open on the other screen. Lot of chrome extensions for Coursera and some generally useful other speed reading type extension, i used beeline, waspline, and beeline pdf, plus a current highlighter plus a sound volume booster enhancer for hard to hear laptop. Quizzes could have had more questions to help drill the info in better, but this truly was a real semester college course. Do the outside readings, they are phenomenal and i have all the chapter pdfs gradient colorized and saved to make reading them very easy. I loved this course, i will take many more

By Sandy J M

Aug 21, 2019

An excellent course. I have a degree in zoology, I and am a physician who has a keen and ongoing interest in natural history and biology, so I came into this course with some knowledge of the area already. I found that the course was structured to accommodate both beginners people and people such as I who have a moderate amount of knowledge already in this area. I have a couple of suggestions: first, I think that the transcript should be available to download in a more advanced form than simple.txt, because it downloads with dozens and dozens of line breaks that make it very difficult to read. In addition, I found a couple of the presenters had vocal mannerisms that prevented the transcription process from accurately recognizing their speech, causing a lot of errors in the transcription. In any case, these are simply annoyances, and do not take away from the value of the course, and overall I highly recommend it.

By Michelle V

Jan 28, 2021

In three words: take this course.

A lot of thought clearly went into it. There are great graphics, beautifully arranged course notes, and additional resources with updates on the latest news and discoveries. Despite the astonishing depth and detail, the information was presented with such clarity and a gentle pace that an interested child could learn it. I appreciated the quality questions and the ability to see my answers after I’ve taken the quiz. The capstone project was also very enjoyable – it challenged me to think for myself and adjust my strategy based on the first report, although it was quite easy to do well.

In terms of the content, I love that entomology is a multidisciplinary field and one of the modules combined my love for natural history and human medicine. I also learned to appreciate the importance of monitoring and conservation of insect populations.

By NGU M S

Sep 11, 2020

Sincerely, i really like this Module. Although there are many Biological terms and words that are difficult to understand (my English is just moderate standard, haha), but through this module, i am willing to search the meaning of words. And the topic that i really enjoy are Module 5, insects as decomposers. And through this module, i help me to learn to know more harmful insect like diamondback moth and its caterpillar and so on. It realy amazing. If i got time, i hope i can review this topics again. And last, really thank you to the admin because giving me chance to retake the quiz although i lack of motivation and can't put effort esppecially of time to go through the module. And the chances that given is very much appreciate. And i am from Malaysia. I hope i can find some online free course just like this in Malaysia. I love this course very much. Thank you.

By Maureen N

Aug 18, 2020

This course was outstanding in many ways. The content was comprehensive and detailed, yet accessible to learners with limited science backgrounds. I have a first degree in biology and have taught secondary science, and I thought some of my high school students and even a motivated, interested middle schooler could complete this course. Best of all, compared to other courses offered online, the pedagogy in this course is excellent. The instructors and designers clearly paid attention to learning and how different people learn when they designed this course. They "check for understanding" regularly and in different ways so you can assess whether you're really understanding what is shared. The video quality is also excellent. I highly recommend this course.

By Jithin V

Oct 7, 2019

Just expecting a brief introduction about insect I enrolled. But it was amazing journey with the team.

Such an amazing content supplemented with suitable media resources, interviews and ILOs!. I am really thankful to the team for the wonderful learning experience provided in the short-term course. I am sure that the course can create a positive attitude towards 'bugs' among the learners irrespective of their backgrounds.

I am eagerly waiting for 'Bugs 102', which will be another ground-breaking course. I am expecting such initiatives will encourage students to take up careers in entomology and allied subjects to fill in the gaps present.

Once again, big thanks to the team!

(Expecting a course which focus on other arthropods also. Spiders, mites etc.)

By Laura F

Aug 26, 2020

This course has changed my mind in so many ways!

In the beggining, I confess that I was more like indiferent with these little cratures, but now... I feel so attached for them. Me and my boyfriend, the one who invited me to study this course, have collected already more than 10 caterpillars and we were fascinated by their transformation!

We are from Brazil, and this course has also helped us in the practice of the english.

I am so grateful for the oportunity of studying is the University of Alberta, even tho in a big distance. If I have the chance, I will take a thousand more courses of this University. You'll inspired me a lot.

I love all the teachers, they are pretty sympathic, and their insect's T-shirts were very stylish!

By Cathy B

Feb 9, 2021

Thank you for putting together such an informative and well-presented course. I certainly learned a great deal about arthropods and look forward to spring and summer so I may identify, observe, and even grow flowers, etc. that will promote insects to come to my yard. I'm even planning to cut up some of my front lawn to grow more insect friendly and native plants - a suggestion that came out of one of the supplementary readings. The presenters of this course were over the top in their enthusiasm and obvious deep understanding of the material. BTW, I thought it was really interesting to watch the items on the shelves behind the presenters, as plants and praying mantis statuettes, books, etc. were moved around.

By Akanksha K

Apr 7, 2020

I am a student from Bangalore, India, currently in my 1st year of B.Sc. in Chemistry, Botany and Zoology. I've never studied entomology in such detail. It was really informative and fun. I am so glad to have learned about insects from the perspectives of various fields ranging from science to art. I've come to realize so many things that are influenced by these tiny yet astounding creepy crawlies. I've learned about the potential that entomology carries in various day to day aspects. I wish to convey my heartfelt gratitude to the whole team behind this amazing course named "BUGS 101". Now, I feel I've developed more curiosity and love for insects more than ever before.

By Daegan K

Nov 22, 2019

It was a great course! I learned a lot about insects and spent quite a while taking notes.

When talking about insects in literature, I would suggest mentioning Jay Hosler's work. He is an entomologist who has written graphic novels about insects, such as Last of the Sandwalkers where the main characters are a group of scientists in a world of mildly-anthropomorphic beetles. Many of the anthropomorphized insect illustrations throughout the course reminded me of his artstyle, they looked enough like humans to be relatable but still respected actual insect anatomy.

Overall the course was great and I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in entomology.

By Tricia R L G

Sep 8, 2020

Before taking the course, even as a Black soldier fly breeder, I had a negative attitude towards most arthropods. Now that I have complete the Insect - Human Interactions course, I have a deep respect for insects, the role and impact they make on our planet. I am amazed at how close the relationship is between species in small and large ecosystems. It is overwhelming to think that changes in human behavior can help the insect species make our earth a better place to live in just by respecting them. Hopefully this course can be open to a lot of people so they develop and apply a more caring attitude towards insects for the betterment of our planet earth.