2008 GW Topics course begins on Substance Abuse: Prevention, Intervention & Public Health

We had the first meeting of the 2008 course this past week and I have a bright, energetic and diverse group of about 15 students who all seem quite interested in the topic. It was necessary this year to review the basic neurophysiology and pharmacologic priciples, but the group seemed to soak them up readily and now has a good handle on these basics.

This year I did try to post the syllabus on Blackboard, along with a link to the course website and from my Blackboard "Control panel" it looked like I did so. However, since several registered students have not been able to find anything there, I guess it's "back to the drawing board" for me on that. Until I can use Blackboard more reliably, I will have to continue to depend on the website I've been using for the past ten or so years.

This is the first year that I'm also using a blog for the course, or the first time I'm really using a blog for anything. Prior to this, I've been using this space just to post links and items of interest without much in the way of comment. So I'm posting this now and will be very interested to see whether any comments come back from the students, and whether this can develop into a forum for group discussion outside of the class period.

Happy trails,

Alan