Student Reactions

Student Comment
"The professor is very knowledgeable, the course covers a wide variety of interesting information and integrates meaningful, real life cases."

Student Comment
"[I had] the ability to obtain courses I couldn't otherwise obtain because of my location."

Student Comment
"Internet is a big part of today's industries, so using the internet to learn builds important skills for working in industry."

Margrit's comments: The course that I teach entitled Risk Assessment for Hazardous Waste Evaluations deals with characterizing the human health risks associated with environmental contaminants. This is a course that's very topical in the US and really world wide today because there are so many toxic materials we're exposed to. We need to understand what their health effects are and how we can assess whether those effects are dangerous or not.

At the end of this course I would expect students to have an understanding of some basic toxicology, human health impacts, and the exposure routes that various contaminants can take. We look at radionuclides,  inorganic and organic chemicals, and how we develop a process for quantifying the risk associated with various kinds of releases.

I think the best thing about a course like this for students is that it has such flexibility. They can participate in the class on demand, when they feel like it, according to work schedules, and according to personal schedules. That's what students mention that they like the best. Sometimes students, for example international students for whom English is a second language, mention that they like that they can repeat lectures. They can listen to the same lecture over or part of a lecture over very easily.

We also have journal articles online in an electronic library so there are a lot of resources easily available. We also have web links that are relevant to the class. Easy access without students having to spend a lot of time researching something, much of that information is just provided to them.

Quantitative and qualitative approaches to assessing risks to public health and environment from chemical contaminants; toxicology, exposure assessment, risk characterization, and environmental modeling; critical reviews of specific toxins and actual waste site studies. Additional projects/assignments reqd for grad cr.