Profile

Claire Brantley
Student
- 1 review
- 1 completed
This was my first experience with a MOOC. I have been interested in Comic
Books since I was a young girl, and I have a background (BA and MA) in
English, so I thought this course would make for a good experience. It was
great in ways I didn't imagine, and it was frustrating in ways I didn't
anticipate, but overall -- I think it was a wonderful experience. Prof Kuskin
made the material come alive for us, his enthusiasm is infectious, and I
thought the assignments were thoughtful and well considered for our massive
student body of learners. What I was frustrated by -- all the ways this course
was NOT like a traditional course -- I had to write my papers for peer
reviewers, some of whom didn't speak English as a first language, and some of
whom don't share my background in literature. However, by the end, I have come
around to seeing that this is a new way of learning and I shouldn't foist my
preconceived notions of learning on this new process. We all have Google, we
can all look up any historical date or figure, or allow it to do math for us,
etc. What will matter in the future is our ability to break complex problems
into critical details, synthesize information so as to come up with new
solutions, etc. And THAT is precisely what a MOOC offers -- you get help more
from colleagues than the instructor -- and the result is not so much that you
get an "A" or score points -- but that you truly learn something. That's a
hard thing for me to forego -- I have spent 40 years figuring out how to get
an A -- but when I let go of that -- I saw the power of the MOOC in a really
clear way. And I liked it very much. Prof Kuskin made this a terrific
experience, and I'm sorta sad it's over, honestly. I'm already exploring other
MOOCs now.