Math 365 (Multivariable Calculus) at ATHABASCA UNIVERSITY

I'm about to register for Math 365 (Multivariable Calculus) at Athabasca University.

This is my first time taking an online course.

I'm wondering if anyone here has taken this course at Athabasca, or at least other math/science courses at the school.

I'm looking for any informed opinion of how hard the course is. I've done advanced math courses before but I heard Athabasca makes its exams very hard and marks harshly. That's why I've been reluctant to do this but unfortunately I have no choice.

 

I took Math 376 (Differential Equations) online last year through Athabasca. Overall a horrible experience but maybe attributed to my TA and not so much the online format.

Actually it was more of a correspondence course and the problem arose because my TA was very bad at communication via email and would become hostile if I asked for a reply quicker than two weeks. He also claimed several times he never received my emails or would forget his previous replies to me.

The course materials were a standard textbook and a University-specific study guide. The study guide didn't help with learning at all. I ended up using another website to get me through the more difficult concepts.

The grading for the section assignments was rough and I had a low C / high D going into the final exam. No feedback on problem sets was offered; the TA simply wrote the numeric grade in Adobe on each page I submitted. If I asked questions about specific problems he would delay his answer or become frustrated and state this was a self-learning course.

The exam questions were similar to the section questions so no surprises there. I was surprised, however, that my final grade after the exam transformed into a low A. I expected much lower unless I somehow aced the exam which wasn't likely given that I never grasped what the grader (the same TA) was looking for in terms of answer details.