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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Global Warming I: The Science and Modeling of Climate Change by The University of Chicago

4.6
stars
438 ratings

About the Course

This class describes the science of global warming and the forecast for humans’ impact on Earth’s climate. Intended for an audience without much scientific background but a healthy sense of curiosity, the class brings together insights and perspectives from physics, chemistry, biology, earth and atmospheric sciences, and even some economics—all based on a foundation of simple mathematics (algebra)....

Top reviews

SL

Oct 5, 2016

A great introductory course into Global Warming as well as modelling which gives you a better insight into what is actually happening with our planet. Started another course and it all fits in.

RC

Jun 26, 2020

A detailed and really knowledgable course. The course structure and the knowledge shared by Prof. David made learning simple and interesting. The assignments are also very well structured.

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126 - 150 of 164 Reviews for Global Warming I: The Science and Modeling of Climate Change

By Deleted A

•

May 15, 2020

OK

By Frans S

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Dec 14, 2016

Dr. David Archer has succeeded in presenting a didactic course in which complex issues like climate and weather conditions are explained in a highly schematic and clear manner for students who do not have an academic degree in either Earth sciences or physics. The series of short video's show Dr. Archer at the blackboard explaining concepts using highly schematic and easy to understand figures. Teaching in the most elementary way, almost perfect.

Completing this course also is learning by practice: there are multiple problems to solve using a wide array of models that compute the impact of greenhouse gases on temperature, humidity, ice sheets and sea levels. Finally a series of assignments require the student to explain in simple terms 'that can be understood by an 11-yr old' what are basic concepts like heat, negative feedback, fossil fuels, climate change and others. An interesting approach.

Together, this is a recommended course for anyone interested in the science behind one of the most discussed changes of our planet. A Minor comment is that the videos would benefit by some change of perspective, introducing here and there images or video's that illustrate the impact of climate change on Earth systems.

By Merih K

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Oct 30, 2020

Thanks to this course, I have learnt many other aspects of environmental science. Although professors' course content was enough, I preferred to study more about each topic because environmental topics are diverse and intense, I recommend that. It may not create a new job opportunity, but it will have been sure developed my point of view. Peer-reviewed assignments actually good, but it was difficult to be reviewed. Reviewing other's assignments were really constructive as you can see other's point of view which some of them were superb. The duration of the course is also pretty long, 12 weeks, to study it as a subtask. On the discussion section, there is no control from the instructors, you are on your own. Frankly, there is not much qualified chatting on the discussion part either for questions or topics, everyone usually asks for the review. Therefore, although the course is excellent, there is no control and you are on your own.

By Clarissa A

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Feb 6, 2021

Interesting and topical material, but it doesn't seem like this course is moderated by the professor any longer. I wish there was more discussion around the models; its great to know how they work, but some more targeted interpretation of the results in the model exercises would have been really helpful. There is also room to update the course with some information on our current status as a global society with respect to climate change. Because it's seemingly not moderated, some folks tend to try and push through in an unethical way, for example by asking for 'good' feedback to pass the course quickly, which devalues the efforts of those who are looking to authentically learn the material.

By Deleted A

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Apr 21, 2016

Good points: 1) Great instructor; 2) applicable content; 3) great for physics students.

Bad points: 1) Lacking of a "Formulae booklet" to use as reminder and reference for formulas and constants - when working on the models for this course; 2) The exercises approach should be reviews, making more use of the tools available in the Coursera interface (example: Assigments in text format (discursive) should use the own coursera interface, instead make us upload .TXT or .DOC files).

Extra: I did not finish the course, the format and content do not achieve my personal objectives, as a software developer and environmentalist. But i really enjoyed the general approach and goal.

By Alexandra T

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Jan 11, 2020

An eye-opening course on climate and what we all should prepare for. Very well structured and presented, with lots of exercises to test/deepen your understanding

Unfortunately, no help from the instructors on the discussion forums, which leads to a bunch of a very confused students to "guess" the answer sometimes having no idea of what's going on in the model. Clarifying some of the questions from week 8 and perhaps being present on the discussion forums would help a lot.

By Seagatekeeper

•

Jan 17, 2017

Excellent lecture for climate change. This lecture give me a deep insight for greenhouse effect and global warming with nice scientific tools and models. However, It's necessary to improve some instruction process to have student understand with more easy. For example, there are various instructions for using models. But sometimes, I have difficulties to understand some model.

Anyhow, I thanks to Dr. David Archer and Coursera staff.

By James G

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Mar 22, 2018

This is a great course for the non-scientist to understand the scientific mechanism and models behind climate change. I requires quite a bit of work but the lecturer explains things extremely well. Overall, some of the quizzes could be better thought through but this is a very good MOOC.

By Ulrich R

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Sep 6, 2018

Highly interesting, informative, challenging and time-consuming course, which has some frustrations when it comes to the exercises. I wish it was still maintained to iron out remaining quirks.

There appears to be no statement of accomplishment unless you buy the certificate.

By Maximilian H

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Jul 30, 2020

It was a challenging and demanding online course but you also could learn a lot. The videos where not too long and the questions in between were very helpful. For an online course it was very well structured although I missed the personal contact with fellow students.

By Ravi S

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Jun 15, 2022

Excellent course to understand the climate model of the earth. Huge cheers for the professor!! Perhaps the course can include a walkthru of some of the models that have been introduced as part of the course - I found myself lost when a model was suddenly thrown at me

By Natasha H

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Nov 10, 2020

Overall great course. A couple of assignments were unclear as to what was required. Thankfully there is enough discourse in the forms with other students to help put you on the right track.

By karthikeyan

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Jan 17, 2016

The slow pace and the simple language helps to comprehend the climate science very effectively. Thanks a lot for that. Use of fundamentals with very little work load per week is fun!

By Zainab K

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Jul 21, 2024

This is an awesome course. I'm introduced to so many new things that I'd hardly get chance of getting knowing. But I feel getting the assignments reviewed is a big headache.

By Smail K

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Nov 26, 2017

Overall this is a good course. The drawbacks are that there are problems with week formulations of some questions. There is no support from course creators.

By Carlos V

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May 29, 2017

Great content and very good teacher! I dont give it 5 stars because there is no teaching staff support at all.

By Jerry M

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Nov 29, 2017

1.Course lectures = very good. Occasionally too brief; more detail should be provided.

By Shahzad S

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Oct 12, 2017

I appreciate the coursera .

By Richard Z

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Sep 15, 2019

An overall good course.

By SNEHA P

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Oct 13, 2024

Excellent course

By Randy K K

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Sep 10, 2017

Great course!

By Priscila F d S

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Jul 14, 2018

Very good!

By Sihui D

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Sep 25, 2023

good

By Kathryn A M

•

Apr 15, 2022

By Edouard I

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Apr 2, 2021

Very clear professor, great and approachable explanations, and interesting exercises!

I like the peer-reviewed works which require us to explain a concept to 11-yos.

The video format is a bit hacky though... Two-minute videos don't really achieve much, and I've got to watch several of them anyway to get a full message. So why not have fluid, 10-to-15 minute videos?

Furthermore, the online models are a great tool to illustrate what is seen in class. However, some tools (in particular the Time Series Browser) work really poorly, and I see that the same problems as I have today existed five years ago. So, although these exercises are interesting and educational, they've clearly been forgotten by the teacher himself. This is not a problem as such, but the course could be made a lot better if the feedback of students (found in the forums of the course) were taken into account.

Overall though, I really liked the class!