Week 2: 10/15-10/21
Updates:
The team has decided to allow you to enter full-screen while going-through the video tutorials, but you must close out of this mode to access the quizes. Also, the debate over the instructor's use of the comma vs the period as radix in course materials.
Pros:
-The small, chunked, sub-units make learning more fun and seem less tedious. The fact that the instructors are consistently testing for understanding in the form of interactive quizes at the end of each chunk really seems to solidify your learning.
-The remedial option when you get a quiz wrong is instantaneous and thereby further impacts the seamless learning effect.
-I really like that the instructors are able to be so nimble and change course content and delivery quickly based on student feedback. Evidence of this can be found in the updates on the course hub message board.
-Additionally, I really like the graphical "progress" dashboard (intuitively under the "progress" tab) that tracks your performance on the homework (note I was a bad student my first week & didn't turn it in - after being lulled-into a self-paced learning trance) and perhaps a career in AI is not in my future! You can definitely tell that I never cheat and look-up answers or get help from other people or bots :) (see screen shot below)!
Cons:
-For a teacher it must be time-consuming to have to draw-out all lessons! What are other options? Perhaps typing onto a screen & integrating screen capture/casting.
-Also, if the camera doesn’t capture every single element of the work of the teacher students can miss crucial details (see screen shot below). I didn’t realize that you can’t complete the homework for a given section past a certain point! I am lulled into the security of true self-pacing from other experiences like MIT’s open courseware.
The Week's Takeaways & thoughts:
I am definitely feeling the negative affect of an instructor-driven online program, for a busy professional, it is often hard to meet hard deadlines for homework! I needed a bit of wiggle-room on timing & from experience with Berkeley & MIT's online courses I was used to that self-directed pacing and missed the first homework deadline. I think because of the timing deadlines, as someone with a non-traditional student's schedule, I rush to keep-up with the course pace, instead of really deeply taking the time to be remedial with info that I don't know. I think this is a key reason to choose a format that can be self-paced. I think that since there are no actual instructor/student interactions as in a virtual learning environment like Second Life or through a webinar, I can't really see the benefit for non-credit seeking students who move through the course to not be self-directed. I realize that for students on the advanced track they seek a "grade" or certificate of completion... but for the rest of us it seems like a barrier to learning.
Screenshots:
Dangers of filming a piece of Paper:
Progress Dashboard:
