BRAIN Lab | Courses

Feedback from Students (AM6516)

The best thing about this course, the class never seemed like a class, it was more like a group of friends meeting and discussing, sharing ideas and learning. Learning suddenly seemed fun for a change. I'd say this is one model course, the pattern and structure which many other professors should take a look at. All thanks to you, for adding another dimension to teaching and introducing us to this interactive form of learning and showing us that there is more to science than what we see.I would have missed out on a lot if I hadn't taken this course. Something that shall always stay fresh in memories. Sheer brilliance. And I completely mean it when I say that I'd rank it in the top 3 courses I've ever taken, out of the 60 odd courses I've taken here so far.

AM6516 Student

Thank you very much for such a wonderful course. I personally enjoyed/learnt a lot. Its not only the course but your motivational words really had a great effect to perceive situations in a different and better way. The amount of work we did was comparatively more, and the beauty is we didn't feel so . This might be an application part of this course :P .

AM6516 Student

We greatly appreciate your commitment towards this course ...Be it teaching , grading, Presentations, Debate, ....everything.....The way you actively participated in all these events, seldom have I seen Teachers indulging with students to this extent. Thank you for introducing us to such a wonderful field and now we are able to find out where our hand is using concept of perception, but still we don't know it was their under conscious control or it was just a reflex..

AM6516 Student

Liked the idea of continuous evaluation, and the way assignments are made to help students do well in exams, and simultaneously understand the concepts. I suggest most of the courses in all the departments should follow this model.

AM6516 Student

What a highly rewarding PAAIINNNregarding course: it was ALLLLOOOOTT,5 quizzes, 21 class tests, debates, End-Sem and 45+hrs of dense NPTEL classes was just Super SICK enough to make a person like me Study so hard like I never did b4 with a reward of deep neuroscience knowledge appealing to my passionate Neuro interests hacking my Basal Ganglia ultimately achieving what most professors could not do. This prof is a legend and this course is an adventure. plz continue flipped classroom method.

AM6516 Student

This is one of the best courses that I have take. Although this is a very tough course, the knowledge that i have gained is completely worth the effort. the instructor has employed many innovative teaching methods that I have never experienced before in any course. I feel lucky and privileged that I have gotten the opportunity to receive education from such an extraordinary teacher.

AM6516 Student

Course is well structured. Professor is very friendly during the course. His enthusiasm towards the subject is great. He helped all students and listened everyone words. Finally, I had nice experience

AM6516 Student

He tried out flipped classroom method for the first time in our department with quizzes,debate and regular class tests.Even though we had hectic schedule, it improved our learning skills in various aspects and also enhanced our knowledge in this subject.

AM6516 Student

it was by far the best course offered at iitm.flipped classroom method was a great learning experience

AM6516 Student

Flipped classroom approach has been the best mode to engage a class of 40. The discussions were very stimulating and pursued concept clarity like no other

AM6516 Student

Best faculty and course

AM6516 Student

The course followed flipped class method, which allowed all students to be active part of the class. According to me it was effective as it allowed to share our thoughts on the topic and know others, which led the whole class progress as one compared in other classes in which there will be only two or three topper but here every one was in the top of the class. The Professor was also very interested clearing the doubts. Once the particular topic is completed a test will be conducted which not only allow Professor to make assessment on our progress but also let us know our understanding on the topic. The flipped classroom approach, which was adopted in the Neuromechanics of Human movement, it is far more effective than the normal approach which other courses follow in the institute here I had better understanding of topics and I’m was also able to appreciate the work done in neuromechanics which comes only with clear understanding. I’m glad that I was part the course. I thank you sir for all the effort you put in making the course such a wonderful experience.

AM6516 Student

Liked the idea of continuous evaluation, and the way assignments are made to help students do well in exams, and simultaneously understand the concepts. I suggest most of the courses in all the departments should follow this model.

AM6516 Student

Even though it took more time to prepare notes because of dense content videos, the concept gets stick in mind clearly than regular classroom method. And I also found that I should learn to be more interactive in class and share my ideas without being hesitant, to which so far I was not used to. But after a long time I spoke in front of class during the first session of the debate and I really thank you for giving that opportunity. This showed me the areas in which I should improvise myself while facing a huge crowd of people. Finally I would like to conclude by saying that I liked the way you deliver the concepts to students and also I like to appreciate you for trying out the new approach of learning. This is the impact created by your teaching and also the depth of understanding the concept. You are really a good teacher. Thank you so much for making me to gain the new experience in the first course that I have taken in IIT.

AM6516 Student

As this was absolutely graded paper the combined efforts as a team was well paid off in the daily tests, quizzes and also in the debate sessions. The flipped classroom approach was new for me and seemed quite challenging but running through course, in this approach, was a pleasant journey. The concepts of the course were explained in the most lucid manner and the regular tests along with the team work on regular basis helped us to consolidate the concepts and were also useful in the quizzes and the debate sessions. The debate sessions were in particular quite exciting and helped to enrich and revisit most of the concepts in the neuroscience. The study of the course from a medical or life sciences faculty would have been different from what we got as a better approach from the faculty of engineering. This gave an angle from the engineering concept which could be applied to the problems in the neurosciences and help to develop some augmenting systems and devices. Having undergone this course I look forward in venturing into these promising avenues. I thank you sir for such a wonderful course.

AM6516 Student

The course has been planned very well. The course schedule and key notes are very promising. NPTEL video lectures were the main key learning source for me. There was a daily test based on NPTEL video lectures which was really interesting. From this daily test schedule prior to class was like digging up yourself in Neuromechanics as much as you can. Because the MCQ based test paper setup was too deep which helped me to gain few more key concepts that I missed from NPTEL videos.

AM6516 Student

There was a quiet through depth in the subject, The experience of daily class tests and the quizzes was good and gave a quick revision to keep in touch with subject. The flipped classroom gave a better pre understanding of the course and the approach was quite better in comparison to the conventional teaching approach. The quizzes were little tough as it included all the major topics with high number of questions. It was addressed by forming a team of our classmates and we taught each other. Many concepts were cleared in this way and we searched a lot in the internet if they were not found in the book The best part was the debate where it gave clear understanding of many concepts which were studied in course. We enjoyed the debate preparations and participation. The cumulative efforts as a team really helped us a lot in fighting the debate and it was fully enjoyed by our team. The flipped classroom was better than the regular classroom approach and I feel that the course should be provided mostly in the flipped mode as it provides better understanding. This subject is multi-disciplinary and this approach gives scope to refer some more literature and have better idea before entering the classroom. This is very good course and a must for people planning for research in the area of neurotechnologist which may be the future. I am really thankful to you sir for providing us such a course which is very useful.

AM6516 Student

The beauty of the course is it takes you from inside a single neuron slowly through its functional interaction with the muscles and the interneuronal interactions, functions and through its end to various brain structures responsible for movement. It's more than a simple guide through the process of human movement.

AM6516 Student

Apart from the subject learning experience, the course has also taught the importance of collaborative learning. I think so the course was challenged everyone and it gave a different perspective of learning and the course is very useful and helpful for my research.

AM6516 Student

In covering the above concepts with great detail, I learnt more than I had expected to, in one semester. What made the course particularly enjoyable for me was the elaboration of specific topics while regularly calling attention to their place in the larger puzzle. The continuous evaluation method and the numerous discussions on the medical impact of these studies helped me retain the subject matter, while motivating me to engage in further reading outside the class. The debate exposed me to various popular and unpopular opinions in the field, as well as the effectiveness of various approaches in solving similar problems. This course has thus provided me with a compact, yet excitingly detailed introduction to the neuroscience of human movement, and has above all, inspired me to pursue my interest in the field with a renewed energy.

AM6516 Student

When I registered for this course, I was totally blank in the knowledge of how human brain works to make movements on the muscles and achieve desired task. This course is off course proved that it is perfect to show me a clear picture of human brain’s contribution to control body. Especially videos were fantastic to learn everything for the beginners as I was. The discussion on the class was very fruitful to get more intense knowledge of the topics. Class test was very exciting for me to learn from videos and solve the interesting mcq questions in the beginning of the class. Apart from this, we had five quizzes, one quiz for each module of the course, which made us to learn every module in a quiet long group discussion with Sundari, Azra, Sandeep, and Vismay. This part of the course is really memorable for me. After reading three papers, at the time of debate, I found myself to wrap up many topics which I learnt in the class from Prof. Varadhan to get the points (which was ultimately meant by the papers also) to speak in the debate. I am really thankful to the Professor for giving us a different insight of our daily activity by relating it with brain parts.

AM6516 Student

Overall the course was good and now the lab meetings make more sense to me.

AM6516 Student

We also started discussing in groups and that made the learning experience even better and enjoyable. We had to put in those extra efforts and lots of pressure was there to cope up with regular tests. There were times I felt a bit down when I wasn’t able to do well especially in the first descriptive test. However you were motivating and kept encouraging not to give up. Most importantly throughout this course we were not competing with each other, but instead were working together as a team and helping each other learn. At the end of it I am very happy that I could make my time during the semester counted. The Learning happened in depth and breadth. I have to thank this course and the way it was conducted by you. Learning in a collaborative environment was definitely the highlight of this course. Often you had mentioned in the class that we learn better when we teach others and also we learn better when we learn from others as we understand things from their perspective. During this course we have realized that this is absolutely true. The debate sessions added a new dimension to the learning and it made us think out of the box. Not only we had to understand the paper, but also think from multiple viewpoints. The topics of the papers very well complemented what we studied in the class. And moreover it was like how do we put together our thoughts in order to apply the learnings we had gained in the class in a given particular situation. Importantly again this was a constructive teamwork.

AM6516 Student

Very useful and gave us a deep insight as well as understanding when discussions happened. I want to strongly convey that I learnt more in this subject than in any of the other subjects that I took in this sem.

AM6516 Student

I wasn't much excited in the beginning of this course but as the course progressed I felt I am gaining a bit of knowledge about my own locomotion.

AM6516 Student

I have spent much time on this course comparing other courses and it’s given back is very lot. The best thing I experienced in this course is a good execution of the schedule. The nptel videos are more informative and very easy to catch the content. I am very grateful to you sir for giving a wonderful course in a fruitful manner. I hope anyone who put effort on this course will get lot of stuffs on neuroscience. Atlast the squeezing gave a juice to taste.

AM6516 Student

Overall it was the best experience learning not only the subject but also learning how to learn a subject. Finally the debate was one of the best experiences I have encountered.

AM6516 Student

I had Great exposure in this course and one of the best course among other courses in this Semester.

AM6516 Student

One of the biggest triumphs of this course is the way the amount of details and the level of abstraction found the right balance and allowed us to seamlessly move up the chain of hierarchy starting from the humble neuron and then from there to the neuromuscular junction and then the muscle and the interneurons and then progressively up to the brain where we covered most of the areas responsible for movement. Learning in this way, helped get a solid understanding at each of the levels. The success of the course is in how much I am able to recollect from a single picture. I could write at least a page’s worth of details at each level of the flow chart. As the course encouraged discussion between the students to solve the assignments, it helped me look at concepts in new ways that I had previously not thought of. The assignments were also pretty challenging to solve, and it was fun solving it and having little debates about the answers and it helped think through the concepts taught. In conclusion, I learnt a lot and had fun while doing it, which is how all courses should be.

AM6516 Student

We continued to have discussions with the other groups even after the debate was completed. Observing others helped me realize the necessity of organizing my thoughts clearly and showed how I could present my point of view better. Overall, the course was a fantastic experience and the learning I got out of it was immense.

AM6516 Student

The not so intuitive language of neuroscientists became intuitive for me. The hard work I did for the course was paid off by the dopamine surge I got after completing the course. I may not revise these topics every day, but kind of like transfer learning, the essence will always help me in preparing for my future scientific endeavors. I have added all the topics and corresponding slides (which better lists the things I have learned) in my Trello board (Please refer the link ---- (removed)). This also enables me to instantly search for the content of the course whenever needed in the future.

AM6516 Student

It was one of the most intensive courses of my semester. Intensive in the sense that I had to do each and every credit’s worth of work. This is not usually the case in other courses. Through this course, my interest in the field of Neuroscience went from 1/10 to 7/10. This has psyched my curiosity to read further in this field. I would definitely include neuroscience as one of my higher studies interests. Though tiring, it was never a burden and I feel that the approach used for discourse in this class should be applied to all courses in the institute. This will definitely increase the learning and reduce the burden amongst all students.

AM6516 Student

Overall, I believe this course was something I needed to learn before i get into any kind of research related to rehabilitation.

AM6516 Student

I would like to conclude by saying that it has been a course like none other I have taken, obviously because of the flipped classroom approach. Also, the seamless transition through the topics was a highlight. This has indeed been a fun ride and worth every minute spent. Undoubtedly one of the best courses I have taken. Be it vis-à-vis the method of instruction, the interaction with my peers both inside and outside the classroom or the content of the course. For someone with no prior background in Biology, this course has been instrumental in making me deeply interested in the intricate neural machinery responsible for movement in vertebrates (and neuroscience in general) and other unanswered questions in motor control. I can see myself building my research life around this field, both in MS, PhD and in the foreseeable future.

AM6516 Student

Learnt a lot of things apart from just academics such as team work, how to better express myself etc. In other subjects we barely even know the names of many of our class mates from other departments, but that cannot be said about this course because of the highly interactive and positive atmosphere that was created. This course pushed me to my limits and I fell that taking up such a challenging course was necessary because of the in depth knowledge and clarity that I gained which would not have been possible had the coursework been any lighter. One of the highlights of this course was the debate which was the most fun session that I have experienced as part of any course. flipped classroom sessions were a joy to attend. Learning was a lot of fun in this course. Going to write the quizzes (all the five) was an intense experience where I pushed myself really hard to put in the extra hours to better my understanding of the allocated syllabus. I would like to describe this course as climbing a mountain which is very hard to climb. The upward climb is very difficult and challenging and can only be made with the help of an exceptional and highly experienced guide. There will be many challenges along the journey to the top which will test the resolve, determination, hard work and integrity of the climber, but those that make it to the summit can look back down and say “Ah, what an absolutely spectacular view. All the effort has been worth it.” At the end of this course I feel privileged to have gotten an opportunity to attend a course of this stature and am left with a feeling of immense satisfaction.

AM6516 Student

Well, this course was a short academic journey on an entirely different class and level, the only one of its kind. This course did take allot (time) and taught me allot. Neuromechanics was my Dopamine for semester 7. It made me what I never imagined I would be. I get kicked in a zone without any substance consumption. I almost gave up hopes from institute, but you did change my views that there are professors who care about teaching and apply out of the box methodologies to bring out the most out of a student. The personal attention you gave towards our progress made us feel responsible to study sincerely. The main difference between other generic courses and this course is “Having to Study” and “Wanting to Study”. This course converted our mind-set from ‘having to study’ to ‘wanting to study’ which helped bring out my inner potential. If you could make me study (a 5pointer guy), you can literally make any undergraduate study with your revolutionary methods. I highly urge you to help improve IITM’s academic experience to students. Thank You for Everything!

AM6516 Student

I took the course AM6516 (Neuromechanics of human movement) to just get an idea about basics of neuroscience, but it turned out to be much more than that. Now, as I look back, what I find most amazing is that how ‘effortlessly’ the complexity as well as the level of the course was raised, starting from simple influx/outflux of ions to the complex neuronal connections. Continuous evaluation helped me in knowing the gaps in my knowledge for each concept. Apart from this, preparing for debate was a nice experience. As different groups were defending, I got an insight into how difficult it can be to come up with a proper definition of simple words that we use in research, or even in day-to-day life. Overall, I am glad that I took this course. All the efforts were totally worth the result that I got. My interest developed in this field so much that I can’t wait to start my research in the related topic!

AM6516 Student

I felt it as a great way of learning the course and made me to attend the classes prepared, understand the concepts thoroughly and the environment of classroom is very interactive which helps me to think the concepts in different ways, teaching to others and learning from others is really a good experience. Every test which we give before each class is really great which helps me to brush up the topics which I have gone through the videos and discussing the questions after the test clears the doubts and makes me to understand the things in a better way. Scheduling of every quiz is very good and the way you correct the papers is really awesome sir which makes me to realise the importance of each and every point. The interest you take in teaching the course and create in us is really very great sir, even though you skip the classes you used to compensate them. Finally the debate is extraordinary, the planning of the course is really beyond attending the classes and giving exams, you did each and every thing possible to understand the content of the course. The important thing I noticed is that you are the only faculty I knew who knows the name of every student attending the course and capabilities of us and you encourages us in every aspect regarding the course. The way you present the concepts is very interesting that makes me to work relatively longer time for this course compared to others. Thank you sir for offering such an interesting course and teaching it very well. I am very glad to be one among the students attending the neuro mechanics of human movement course.

AM6516 Student

One can learn a lot if given the right amount of time. I took this course because i was very thrilled by the idea of flipped classroom model and in the end i can very confidently say that indeed my decision was right. This course has taught me a lot of key concepts which i used in different courses on various occasion. By far this course was the best offered this semester. Although it requires a lot of patience when one first go through the contents.but, later we realised how each thing interconnects with each other seamlessly. Lastly, the debate part was mind boggling. I could actually feel the effects of dopamine secretion at that moment. I feel very fortunate to be part of such a debate where every individual in the class was so informed about the topics. I wish i was a part of reflex versus voluntary group but, in all it was a learning experience all-round the way. Very grateful to you for your words you told me about the clarity of my answers in the quizzes and will surely try to improve it the exams to come.

AM6516 Student

This format of the class was enormously helpful, we watched the videos before coming to class and class time is devoted to clarifying or rehearsing information, or to a deeper learning experience. Daily quiz before every class was also a good concept as it forced us to watch videos. Providing question bank before quizzes promote the environment of group study, which was extremely beneficial. The content inside the videos was so deep that we haven’t missed any concept. The most interactive and enjoying session of the course was the debate. While preparing for the debate we have carried out the review of the whole course and also come to know about the various research areas of this field. This also soothed us to interact with a diverse group of students. We come to know about the various issues of neuroscience. The course was structured well and executed according to the plan. Both the students and faculty had equally performed rigorous work for the success of this course. This also aided me to spark my interest in the field of neuroscience, and most of the credit goes to the professor Vardhan sir. Thank you, sir, for such an overwhelming experience.

AM6516 Student

I enjoyed this approach as the videos allowed me to learn the content at my own pace. Also, sometimes when listening to a lecture, the mind wanders for some reason and if something important (definition, concept, etc) is conveyed at that exact moment, it becomes difficult to follow along later. This is completely eliminated if there are video lectures as I can skip back to that part. Apart from the above, I thoroughly enjoyed the course content as well.

AM6516 Student

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