This class was very interesting and informative. Professor Grainger is extremely knowledgeable and you can tell he is very passionate about genetics, which makes his course engaging (even in an online format). There were two open note exams, a group presentation, and a final paper. The exams were challenging (all short answer format) but I was able to make up for lower exam grades with my group presentation and final paper. The final paper is on a topic of your choice. I highly recommend this course, especially with Professor Grainger.

Professor Grainger explains concepts well and making the class interesting. This was his first semester teaching the class, so it was a little bit disorganized, and he takes a while to grade things. However, you can tell that he cares about his students and wants them to succeed. There are two exams consisting completely of free response questions, one group presentation on a topic of choice, and one final paper on a topic of choice. You need to understand the papers he assigns very well to succeed in this class, but if you are at all fascinated by molecular biology and genetics, then you will do just fine. Overall I'd say this is a very enjoyable course, perhaps my favorite biology course I've taken at UVA.