Profile

Dianne Owens
Student
- 30 reviews
- 30 completed
This third installment of the ten-part mini-MOOC series discusses the role of
culture with the Tang. We learn about calligraphy, poetry and text in the
everyday life of those with the means to indulge in such things. Learning
about Chinese calligraphy fonts was pretty neat, and I find much of the
material still floating around in my mind in a meaningful way. The course
taught students a bit about the structure of poetry during this era, as well
as offering some insight into storytelling by way of examining a specific
manuscript published during this period.
This course is a terrific introduction to the area of Computer Science,
covering a wide range of topics, such as coding, security and hardware. If you
or somebody that you know are considering a high-demand career in Computer
Science but have minimal experience and knowledge, then I highly recommend
this course.
(Please note that I completed the intake-based version of this MOOC via the
Stanford Online rather than the self-paced version being hosted at Coursera.)
I finished this course in late 2013 out of curiosity. What I got was a history
of computer science as well as an explanation of internet technologies and
security. It was a lot of information for somebody with minimal background.
The fast pace actually worked well for the course, as I never felt bogged down
with one subject. The forums were lively as well, the enthusiasm for the
course and for our likable leader Dr. Chuck was evident throughout. It was a
community of people that genuinely cared about learning and discussing issues
of internet security and whatnot. I feel a lot more knowledgeable and enriched
for doing this course. It also led to me deciding to learn programming. While
the latter has been rather slow due to my other studies, I am still excited
about computer science.
I was unsure of the specifics of this course when I first enrolled, other than
that I would expand my knowledge of Asia. This course was a great introduction
to the 10-part series, laying the foundation for the rest of the series by
offering some insight into the events that lead up to the philosophical school
of Confucianism. I really enjoyed the material and felt inspired to learn
more. As such, I have signed up for the rest of the series, finishing the
first four installments and currently being stuck into the fifth ahead of part
7 going live.
I expected to learn some foundations in psychology, but this course focuses
more on the philosophy of psychological study, research, prevention and
treatment of mental illness. Though I didn't learn what I expected to, I did
see a lot of other students gaining real benefit from the materials. Folks
looking for more foundations in the science of psychology and neuroscience
will likely benefit from the Foundations of Psychology MOOC over at
Open2Study.
I was pleasantly surprised by what I learned during this MOOC. An example was
the cutting up of valuables in order to create equivalent values. Religion and
culture were somewhat fascinating for me, though I wasn't as surprised with
the discussions of slavery and political back-stabbing... often done with
Gladiuses. This course ties in well with the course on Portus also offered by
one of the other colleges via the FutureLearn platform.
Though I studied English in high school, this course showed just how rusty my
foundations were. I suppose that is what nearly two decades out of high school
can do even when somebody such as myself spends time trying to avoid the loss
of said skills and knowledge. Anyway, if you are looking for a refresher or
foundations course then the lecturers provide very clear lessons in grammar.
I was also sure to report some plagiarism in the form of an assessment copy
and pasted from wikipedia. I became suspicious due to the way in which the
piece was written, determining that it was plagiarism after copying and
pasting the first two lines into a google search. I highly recommend this
method for your future assessment of peers.
I learned a LOT during this course. It helped dispel numerous misconceptions
about Japan as well. It was a breath of fresh air.
This installment ties in to more recent world events. The demise of the Qing
is sad but inevitable given the circumstances occurring internally and
externally. This would also lead to China trying out political systems other
than Imperialism, which are discussed in part 8 of the series.
I expected a continuation of the awesomeness of the other two courses, and
John Covach delivered. I really look forward to his MOOC on The Rolling Stones
early next year.
I don't quite recall what I expected to learn going into this course, but I
found myself looking forward to those videos of the experiments because they
were both fun and interesting. However, the voice of one of the secondary
lecturers bugged me for some bizarre reason. My issue, admittedly, rather than
the fault of the staff or materials being presented.
I didn't expect to learn near as much as I did during this course. The level
of challenge and relevance of the MOOC made it suitably accessible and
interesting, Some may find the level of challenge and learning curve somewhat
disconcerting though.
Given my previous exposure to the subject, I didn't learn near as much as I'd
hoped. However, newcomers to the subject will gain significant benefit from
studying the materials.
I learned a few new things during this course. It was a pleasant surprise
given my previous exposure to the subject. The delivery may not appeal to some
due to the style, but it does offer some excellent techniques for folks
looking to improve their deep learning.
I was expecting the material to be more related to Psychology. It turned out
to be more focused on Evolutionary Psychology. I didn't consider this to be a
bad thing as it placed behaviour into the right context. That being said, some
of the material may touch a nerve.
I completed this course September 3rd 2013. As such, the course may have
undergone some of the changes seen to assessment for course offerings in early
2014.
Given my appreciation for the MOOCs on offer from The University of Edinburgh
and a love of critters, I decided to enroll. It was a terrific introduction to
issues of animal welfare, placing the subject into context using research into
animal cognition and behaviour. It also offered some indications of what
different countries are doing about improving animal welfare. By tying all of
these elements together, the course offered a solid foundation for further
study of the subject.
The team of lecturers for this MOOC discuss the history of veterinary science,
some basic anatomy of a horse and a dog, the role of the vet and veterinary
nurse, and species specific care. It is an excellent overview of the field
that has changed from being species-specific jobs such as Farriers, to a field
that considers and learns the comparative and specific physiology of many
animals.
I enrolled in this course to learn more about the music that my dad used to
play in our household when I was growing up in Australia during the 80's. He
used to play music from various eras, with an appreciation for some of the
genres that inspired Rock music. The first installment of the course discusses
the part that radio and television played in the spread of music, each genre
adding to the collective that would inform and inspire rock. We see the part
that certain figures, such as Elvis Presley and the Beatles, played in
popularizing Rock music. The course delivers a lot of facts, but also
encourages students to search out some of the tracks and bands mentioned on
their own. It was engaging and led to me enrolling in the second installment
as well as The Music of The Beatles that finished a week ago and the course on
The Rolling Stones that goes live early 2015.
While I learned quite a bit during this course, I found that it is best
accompanied by several other archaeology courses discussing other regions
during the same periods. As such, the accompaniment of FutureLearn's MOOC on
Archaeology of Portus and EdX's ChinaX mini-course series offered a lot of
context, as the three areas were connected by trade around 49 C.E. My only
issue was that Professor Lacovara seemed so nervous when he was reading the
scripted lessons. However, this was not enough to take away from the material
being learned about the conflicts faced by Nubia over time and the eventual
fall of the empire. The videos were accompanied by the script for each week in
PDF, but there are some visuals used in the videos that make them the primary
focus of study. Students will not only learn about the changes in Nubian
society over the various eras, but will also gain some insight into
archaeological practice over time.
The course was a great introduction to the technical side of Astronomy and
Astrophysics, offering some insight into those physical objects used to
gather data on far-away objects. It discusses some of the history of lens and
camera technology, some important equations and terminology used in the field.
The course follows a logical format, laying the foundation of tools in order
to discuss the science behind the use of those tools. The forums were rather
active, with the two lecturers and their teaching staff being involved in many
of the discussions. The course as a whole was quite engaging, and I dropped
some marks due to having some existing understanding of the subject-matter due
to previous self-study of the subject.
This course is a great introduction to philosophy. It teaches students some of
the terminology and a different professor covers the material for each week
through the lens of their specialization. The material was interesting, and
inspired me to enroll in several other MOOCs on philosophy. Excellent stuff!
Though the course offered some insight into psychology, evolution and biology,
there was some obvious animosity for theists by Professor Ogilvie. I
understand some of the anger, but it does strike me as somewhat silly given
that much of what is being argued is stuff out of our control due to biology
and neuroscience. However, this anger really took away from the material being
taught. Professor Hamilton was rather personable, and dealt with the material
on neuroscience and some of the stuff on biology in a thoughtful way.
Having finished a MOOC on Vaccines earlier in 2013, I decided to enroll in
this MOOC. This MOOC gave a great overview as to how diseases spread and react
to stimuli. It also deals with how health professionals combat epidemics via a
number of techniques. The videos make use of animations for teaching concepts.
Giving each lecturer some time in front of the camera gave them some time away
from the lab. The end of the week panel discussions based on forum questions
offered us some further understanding of epidemiology.
This course discusses the history of voting, from simple rocks in a box to
electronic voting. It encourages students to look at these various voting
technologies in order to determine ways in which they can be broken. By doing
this, we allow ourselves the ability to refine voting technologies. Students
are encouraged to be a part of the process of problem-solving in a meaningful
and engaging way. The lecturer had some mild ticks that might irritate some
folks, but he was knowledgeable and genuinely cares about what he is teaching.
This course far exceeded my expectations, bringing together an overview of the
history of disease and disease treatment from vaccination. The methods for
developing treatment for major disease have no doubt been refined dramatically
over the last century. This course seeks to debunk misinformation about
vaccines that have been a major issue over the past decade and a half, which
has led to recent outbreaks of diseases such as Measles. As such, this course
is timely. Though there is evidence as to the worth of vaccines, we also have
to deal with numerous psychological effects that have resulted in people
believing in dodgy studies.
This course was my introduction to network science. It was fast-paced and
offered lots of variety in the materials covered, yet those materials were
logically connected. And there was a running gag wherein Michael Kearns
appeared in front of some random image in the introduction to each video,
which was a great ice-breaker. Though I suffered from poor mathematics, the
course was highly enjoyable for me.
This course is a great introduction to the study of how diet and physical
activity impacts on our health. However, the lecturers seemed a bit nervous
when producing the videos. This often took away from the flow of some of the
videos, but the course as a whole was formatted appropriately for the
material.
This fourth installment of the ten-part mini-MOOC series examines education,
economics and philosophy of government. It discusses the rise of Neo-
Confucianism and how various Confucian schools dealt with personal, social and
economic issues.
This course follows on chronologically from the first installment in the mini-
series. In this second part, we see the events leading up to the rise of
Buddhism in China. Though I have some mild exposure to Buddhism due to some
books on the subject, I found that this course offered some well-needed
context for understanding the religion and its popularity.
I expected a more traditional focus on leadership for this course. However, it
considers the reality that not all learning environments are the same.
Students are encouraged to look at their own theory of learning as well as
consider how the structure of a learning environment affects the flow of
knowledge and the leadership therein. It was a fresh and logical approach to
problem-solving, topped off by a design challenge at the end.