Ecology and Wildlife Conservation

I really liked the variety of topics in this course, and it was done in a fun and educational way. They were relatable current topics: the destruction of bees and coral reefs, the effects from wind turbines, different conservation methods, and several activities or reflections. The activities were a fun way to learn: to practice understanding the way patterns of birds moved through areas where there were wind turbines, studies to monitor movement from bees and other insects through bioacoustics, etc. I really thought this course was well put together and FutureLearn made it very easy to follow and complete each section with ease. I really would love to do some more courses through the University of Leeds. I wonder if there in-person courses are just as interesting. Too bad I live in the United States. Don't feel bad if you fail. I failed the course at 43% at first because I thought some of the multiple choice could be thought in different ways when asked. They explained some of the reasoning in the answers, so when I retook the course I was able to remember most of their reasoning for the answers and scored 96%. I admit I was frustrated at myself at first because I thought I learned a lot, but what I took away was slightly different and I thought some of the questions were posed in a way that could have different answers rather than a straight answer, so I picked myself up by my boot straps and retook the test and scored much better. But, the thing is what you take away from it - and I learned new conservation methods and ideas and that to me was more important.

I just finished this course and I must admit that I did like it a lot for actually focusing on the subject and not on scoring a high number or letter grade per each part (leaving that just for the end test). But there are two issues I have plus one detail that prevents me from giving this a full 5 stars:
#1. Futurelearn promotes itself as "free" but if you want to have anything to show for it you have to pay $49 USD to get a certificate. Now let that sink in, "$49 bucks for a certificate of completion." Something that can only be used to show off and say "hey look I did this," it just feels silly and overpriced.
#2. The test. 2 weeks of focusing on 2 general things and at the last second slamming a new topic of which the test questions will focus on is a terrible idea. The questions I dealt with were not even topics covered within those 2 weeks so I ended up with a 73% because of the fact there was not a proper analysis on the matter of certain aspects the questions were about (and for some reason only a couple of questions were about the stuff that was actually covered in those 2 weeks). Not allowing at least a second try, after all of that, is not a good call if you're gonna pull something like that, otherwise, there should be an option for a refund instead of making me pay for an upgrade when I don't even have the guarantee of getting the certificate, makes it look like it's all a nasty trick for quick cash.

Whilst this course does provide some good information, I think that the short length of this course does not allow for a fuller extent of the topic of Ecology and Wildlife Conservation to be explored- what about a case study of a particular ecosystem in need, or how it could be improved in terms of habitat health or the interactions of its occupants, etc? What is one to do in terms of invasive species? What are the pros and cons of in-situ vs. ex situ conservation? When is introducing species helpful? Some of these questions could have been touched upon... Don't get me wrong, it's good if you come in knowing absolutely nothing at all I guess, but I would rather recommend that FutureLearn users take the Open University's Introduction to Ecosystems when it is available on site, which lasts thrice as long, but is very digestible yet informative whilst also touching upon conservation matters. Unlike the latter, I was not compelled to upgrade this course and make it truly worth my while....

I think this course is really interesting and fun, I got to learn about things I like to learn about like pollinators and coral reefs, and before starting the course I was curious about the effects of windfarms on seabirds since I hadn't heard much strong evidence for this, and seeing how this kind of data is collected and analysed is really interesting.
I think I could be made more clear at the beginning how you are assessed - or maybe I just didn't read the instructions - there are a couple of quizzes to check your understanding and I'm not sure if the first one counted towards your overall percentage, so clarifying that would be useful. It would be useful for the final test at the end if they mentioned that one or two of the questions would require you to apply your knowledge to slightly different scenarios than what you covered, but this was only the case for one or two of the questions.
Overall a great and useful course if you're interested in ecology.

Ecology and wildlife conservation are critical issues for all of us because of the importance of biodiversity for human wellbeing. This short course provides a basic primer to appreciating and understanding ecology and wildlife conservation. It is easy to understand, and some complex concepts are introduced in ways that even people without strong background in the area may learn from.

There was vigorous discussion among the learners, but unfortunately no involvement of the educators in the discussion.

I recommend the course for anyone, especially kids and young people whose interest in ecology and wildlife conservation will be important for the future of planet earth.

I'm disappointed that you cannot complete the quiz and the course without payment.

I ve enjoyed this course .... one of several that Ive taken on similar topics; by design it is brief, an overview, an appetite whetter! makes it very accessible indeed (I did it to fill in a gap between two other courses that I d signed up for). excellent graphics, wide range of case studies, and questions which made you think and research other areas .... my only criticism is that the comments where the "findings" were contributed limited to 1200 characters ... even simple and basic research needed far more, so there was a real pressure to be concise, and sadly a lot of information missed out. There was an option to create a padlet, I ve not encoutered this system before, it required a sign in and I already have too many accounts so I opted out of that!