What other class folders do we need?

[Jute]

Let me know what class folders we should add here.

[Xiri]

Maybe Mythology?

[Seawood]

Are we having folders just when there's more than one person doing them?

I'm starting Greek & Roman Mythology and Writing In The Sciences next week *gulp*, Introduction to Genetics & Evolution in October and Drugs & The Brain and Think Again: How To Reason & Argue in November. Anyone doing any of those?

[Xiri]

I am doing all of those, and then some more. Told you I'm crazy.

[Seawood]

Ace. :D I'll probably have to audit a few but it'll be great to have someone to talk them over with!

At this point it might be easier to ask you which ones you *aren't* doing ;-)

[Jute]

I've made you both moderators, so you can create folders as well! I'm not opposed to having a folder if there is only one person so far, you never know when we might get someone else and I'd be interested to know how the classes are, even the ones I'm not taking!

[Xiri]

Hehe :) I do audit the most, to save my sanity!

[Jute]

Caroline wrote: "Are we having folders just when there's more than one person doing them?

I'm starting Greek & Roman Mythology and Writing In The Sciences next week *gulp*, Introduction to Genetics & Evolution in ..."

I'm doing all of them except for Writing in the Sciences. :)

How about if we create the folders when the class is close to starting?

[Xiri]

Jute wrote: "How about if we create the folders when the class is close to starting?"

Good idea!

[Seawood]

Great!

I'm sorta kinda wondering about moving into science/tech writing for work so it'll be great to get a taste of it for free.

[Emy]

For my stupidity, here's my plan:

Fundamentals of Online Education: Planning and Application (Starts in 4 months)
Fantasy and Science Fiction: The Human Mind, Our Modern World
Gamification (Aug 27th - Oct 8th)
A History of the World since 1300 (Sep 17th - Dec 10th)
Greek and Roman Mythology (Sep 24th - Dec 3rd)
E-learning and Digital Cultures (Jan 28th 2013)

[Jute]

Oh! I'm in History of the World and taking the Mythology class..what do you think of the History class so far?

[Seawood]

How was Gamification? I fancy that one next time round - apparently it mentions Fitocracy, which I've been addicted to for the last year or so. It's had a huge impact on both my health and social life!

[Xiri]

I'm actually signed up for all of the courses, so that's the extent of my madness to attempt to "learn".

Gamification is interesting, but I'd think it's better for ones who are into business or who have game development background - at least that's my personal impression.

Emy, maybe let's add folders for those groups too then in the group? I have yet to catch up with the History class, how is it going?

[Emy]

Catching up with History lectures as I type - he's a good lecturer, and improving at videos as he gets more used to it... Overall I like it, although I'm not a big fan of the text book as it reads like a GCSE level one, which is annoying. (Give me citations authors!)

Gamification is much harder so far than the others I've been doing. Much higher level of brain involved for me at least... I'm not too worried about how well I do at this one, I just want the knowledge to use at work - I have a manager who is VERY into buzzwords, and I need knowledge to argue when things aren't appropriate and where they are. This is going to give me that I think! It mentions all sorts of ideas and examples, from Weightwatchers onwards! The lecturer caught me from the start when the first 30 secs he was a Tauren in Orgrimmar ;)

[Xiri]

Yeah, Tauren bit was awesome! Nice to know that History instructor is good.

I also thought it was funny when one quiz asked about Minecraft :)

[Xiri]

I'm also a bit annoyed, to put it nicely, about Zynga's products used everywhere as examples...

[Xiri]

Looks like there are some changes to Coursera (again... ) since I've just received an e-mail about certain course's start and it looks vastly different. Or it could be that they customized the HTML template for that one?

[Seawood]

They do seem to be learning a few things, don't they - standardised info is coming through.

Writing For Science has a quick-responding team so far. They'd embedded quizzes - which counted towards your grade - in the videos and there was a huge outcry about how daft that was, since a good proportion of the class were downloading and watching the vids offline due to slow connections or just sheer convenience. Within about eight hours they'd redone the marking scheme to leave those out. Suits me; my connection was all over the place yesterday.

I also noticed Greek & Roman has a much better grading rubric - haven't read it thoroughly yet but it's far less obscure and open than Sci-fi was. Should be easier to do peer marking and get a sensible grade.

[Xiri]

Lovely. Must confess, SF/F professor had a very umm "interesting" attitude towards courses compared to that of others, but that's the luck of the draw, right?

Embedded quizzes can be interesting, if one has a decent connection or a PC that does not lag and etc - but to make them actually count towards score makes no sense; glad to know that was changed.

[Seawood]

Xiri wrote: "Lovely. Must confess, SF/F professor had a very umm "interesting" attitude towards courses compared to that of others, but that's the luck of the draw, right?"

*grin* Professorial personality is probably going to come through a lot; it's a good way of making contact with your audience. The Science Writing lecturer seems to find any convoluted writing "amusing".

Rabkin does seem slightly obsessed with...let's say the Freudian approach. :)

[Xiri]

Caroline wrote: "Xiri wrote: "Lovely. Must confess, SF/F professor had a very umm "interesting" attitude towards courses compared to that of others, but that's the luck of the draw, right?"

*grin* Professorial per..."

Perhaps Jungian too, according to a certain site that rates professors - oh, and Bible. Ahem :)

He also has a course at the TheGreatCourses, which can be bought or... well, found elsewhere. All I know that certain errors in the lectures could have been quite easily corrected, e.g. the one about the Martians in the unit for "A Princess of Mars".

[Seawood]

Xiri wrote: "according to a certain site that rates professors"

:OOOO Maybe I'm just a product of the (as was) not for profit British university system but I *cannot* imagine rating my lecturers like that. I really looked up to most of them and never considered myself a consumer. There were a few loonyfruits and the odd egoist but tbh that's what made most of the lectures memorable! I'd rather someone was interesting and a bit dotty than so boring the entire room is asleep.

I wonder how different things will be when/if my girls go to uni.

[Emy]

Dotty professors were the best - I still have very fond memories of one tutor at UCL who was, quite frankly, insane. But awesome! :D

[Seawood]

:)
I had one lecturer in 2nd year who was just horrendous. So incredibly boring, I don't think I learned any physiology at all - we used to go to the union to, er, fortify ourselves on a friday lunchtime before his 2hr sessions. Then I took his brain sciences module in 3rd year and he was absolutely amazing in his own subject. I ended up doing a Masters in Neurosci because he was so inspirational. So sometimes it can be the subject matter...

[Emy]

Definitely Caroline - and the reverse too.

I loathe Descartes, with a passion. I had to read Discourse on Method and The Meditations as an undergrad in my first year, and struggled - didn't manage to get through more than 3/6 of his meditiations. Then one lecturer was so inspiring I actually wanted to go back and read the rest of it. Needless to say the book was still godawful (to me), but that lecturer actually managed to provoke me to try again, which none of the others on the course had managed it.

In explanation: My university had a (peculiar/unusual) policy left over from the 1960s which was still somewhat in place when I was there 30 years later. The idea was that everyone did the same first year and then specialised. The remnant that I had was a major Yr1 module on 'The Enlightenment', which every humanities scholar HAD to take, covering philosophy, sociology, art history, politics, and God knows what else. I did more 'avoidance reading' on that course than at any other time at university!! In theory I have read Descartes, Pascal, Betrand Russell, Voltaire, Hobbes, Locke, Mary Shelley, Mary Woolstencraft, Rousseau, Engels and Paine. In practice, I read Voltaire, Pascal and Mary Woolstencraft. The rest I faked, skimmed or avoided as appropriate. Needless to say I got a 3rd for that course ;)

[Jute]

Remember anytime we need a new folder, just let us know!

[Seawood]

Jute wrote: "Remember anytime we need a new folder, just let us know!"

Ok...I have:
Intro to Genetics & Evolution
Experimental Genome Science
Drugs & the Brain
Think Again: How To Reason & Argue
Intro to Astronomy

all coming up before Christmas - anyone got any of those? I'll be auditing a few, just watching along with my DH.

[Jute]

I'm doing

Intro to Genetics & Evolution
Drugs & the Brain
Think Again

[Xiri]

Caroline wrote: "Jute wrote: "Remember anytime we need a new folder, just let us know!"

Ok...I have:
Intro to Genetics & Evolution
Experimental Genome Science
Drugs & the Brain
Think Again: How To Reason & Argue
I..."

Me. I'm basically on all, and auditing - when not cheating in a certain sense - on most. Oh, and horribly behind, too.

[Jute]

Alright, when it gets close to time for the classes to start, say one week ahead of time... then we can create the folders. If I forget one, both Caroline and Xiri are moderators and can create them as well.

[Xiri]

I tried to, but could not figure out how - if in case someone else is taking the Sustainability one, for example.

[Jute]

Click on the "Discussion Board" text and choose edit folders...then you can add one.

[Xiri]

Thanks :)

[Seawood]

Righto!