About this course: In this course, we’ll look at the facts and misconceptions around obesity and discuss key physiological and psychological concepts around the brain’s control of appetite and body weight. We’ll consider the biological and environmental pressures that make it easy to gain weight (and hard to lose it!). Most importantly, we'll give you the opportunity to reflect on your own knowledge and assumptions around the subject. We deliver course materials as a mixture of videos, audio-only MOOCcasts, and a selection of short readings. There are short weekly quizzes, a peer-reviewed exercise, and discussion activities on the forum. These will help you prepare for the final project. In it, you are invited to demonstrate your evidence-informed understanding and express how you'll develop it beyond the course. The course features Citizen Science projects. We'll collect data from you (anonymously, of course) and use it to drive participant-led discussions of controversial ideas. In this way, we hope to explore ideas around diet and obesity. These projects also give a taste of how scientific evidence is collected and interpreted by scientists, and give some indication how much there still is to discover and understand.
Who is this class for: This course is for anyone who is interested in the complexities of appetite and obesity.
Taught by: Dr John Menzies
University of Edinburgh
| Level | Beginner |
| Commitment | 4 weeks of study, 1-2 hours per week |
| Language | English |
| How To Pass | Pass all graded assignments to complete the course. |
| User Ratings |
- Reading: About the course
- Video: Rules of engagement
- Video: Why is obesity a problem?
- Video: What do we know about appetite and obesity? Part 1
- Video: What do we know about appetite and obesity? Part 2
- Reading: MOOCcast 1.1: The Scientific Method
- Reading: MOOCcast 1.2: Science, evidence and the media
- Video: The physiology of appetite
- Reading: MOOCcast 2.1: Is food an addictive substance?
- Reading: MOOCcast 2.2: Is eating a behavioural addiction?
- Video: Early-life experience
- Reading: MOOCcast 2.3: Stress, eating and dieting
- Peer Review: Reflecting on Barriers to Healthier Eating
- Video: The psychology of appetite
- Reading: MOOCcast 3.1: Portion size and meal size
- Video: Economic approaches to obesity
- Reading: MOOCcast 3.2: Food insecurity
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Very interesting! Insightful understanding to the problem of obesity.
Este curso ha sido una nueva experiencia para mi. Me ha cambiado la forma de entender a la obesidad y ha ampliado mucgisimo mi conocimiento. Muchisimas gracias.
Im learning a good data hear , thank you for everything !
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AR
Great for a podcast-type learning experience. I question some of the research results they mention, which is my only concern. Otherwise a great course and very educational! Corrects a lot of common misconceptions and does a good job of getting in-depth without being specialized.