{"id":2748,"date":"2012-09-14T08:59:09","date_gmt":"2012-09-14T14:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/?p=2748"},"modified":"2014-09-12T11:48:07","modified_gmt":"2014-09-12T17:48:07","slug":"coursera-gamification-course-second-impressions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/2012\/09\/14\/coursera-gamification-course-second-impressions\/","title":{"rendered":"Coursera Gamification Course, Second Impressions."},"content":{"rendered":"Approximate Reading Time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

I am now midway through my first coursera<\/a> course on Gamification<\/a>. (If you want to find other posts on this, try the ‘coursera’ tag, right).<\/p>\n

I offered some initial thoughts here<\/a>. I haven’t really changed those opinions. I will say that the materials that are there are all well put together, clean, sans glitches, and professional looking. I will also add that the videos run very smoothly, even for me, and that’s saying something – I have terrible bandwidth.<\/p>\n

The quizzes have some variety of questions, but for obvious reasons, there are no essay-type or short answer questions. The assignments are short and are to be “marked” by other members of the class. This part gives me pause. I don’t actually have any suggestions for another way to do this given the size of the class but without some sort of oversight by a facilitator it really seems like the blind leading the blind. I ‘m told that we will all get to assess the submissions of 5 other people. Not sure why we have to do 5 but 2 possibilities come to mind: 1. they are expecting that many people will not do their share, and 2. it may be possible to get a more realistic assessment if more than one person does it. Of course, the second possibility assumes that the people doing the assessment will do a decent job AND that they are fit to do the assessment.<\/p>\n

When I submitted my assignment, I was effectively forced to assess 5 other submissions. The system takes you through lock-step so you are given 5 other submissions. Presumably, you won’t get to see your mark unless you do them.<\/p>\n

I really like that I can download all the lectures and that I have numerous choices for the format:\u00a0 I can download the mp4 video or just the slides (pdf). at this point this first half of the lectures also offer a text only version (txt), and subtitles (srt).<\/p>\n

That having been said, there is nothing innovative about the way the content is presented or the way it is assessed.<\/p>\n

I’ve also noticed that I have a different attitude towards this course than I do towards the other online course<\/a> I’m taking. The other one is for “real” – meaning I’m paying money for it and I, if I succeed, I will come out the other end with a bona fide credential. I find I don’t put the same effort into the coursera course that I do into a real course for a couple of reasons:<\/p>\n

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  1. There’s no benefit to being outstanding, only to being ‘good enough’.<\/li>\n
  2. I’m not sure I like the idea of sharing my best ideas with 5 strangers (at least if I post them on my blog, there is some sort of public record that I control).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p>\n

    I should be getting my first set of marks in both courses soon. I’ll let you know.<\/p>\n