Tag: MOOC

MOOCy Monday: Introduction to Graphic Design on OpenLearning

by GHLearner

1What does she want with graphic design? You ask after having seen my list of courses about space, and writing. The short answer is: I can’t give up dabbling in artsy stuff even though I lack practice and knowledge. I like good design, pretty fonts, colours, shapes– and wish I knew the secret of what makes design good, bad, or mediocre–which is not the same as taste. And so I’ve signed up for this self-paced course on Open Learning: Introduction to Graphic Design.

The course features the free online software Canva. You find a multitude of layouts, stock images, fonts, shapes, lines there, and much of it is free. The course–I’ve only taken the first two sessions so far, features the program and shows what you can do with it. You are also invited to share your designs and discuss with your peers. There are exercises, but there is no peer-reviewed assignment, at least I didn’t find one. And this is something I already miss. Continue reading “MOOCy Monday: Introduction to Graphic Design on OpenLearning” →

MOOCy Monday: What is a MOOC

by GHLearner

I’m a bit tired at the moment, and not really up-to-date with my courses. I’ve been wondering what to write about… but couldn’t come up with anything substantial the second week in a row. So I’ve been looking around a bit, and I found this video by David Cormier. It explains MOOCs very well, and in an entertaining way.

MOOCy Monday: A Comparison of Learning Platforms

by GHLearner

coffeemoocAfter a bit less than a year of auditing and participating in various online classes, I have a general idea about how the different MOOC models work. I have, so far, looked at: coursera, FutureLearn, Open2Study, Iversity, Open edX, Stanford Online, and Alison. I find all of them very good, all of them offer a variety of interesting subjects. Most of them work after similar principles. Chosing one will mostly be a matter of personal preference, language offered, or type of courses offered.

I’m offline some evenings of the weeks, and that’s also the time when I have time to study. Too bad, then, that most course material is only available online. Having easy access to the material offline is therefore a major criterion for me to chose a platform; an app that allows offline viewing is ideal. The only platform with apps is coursera, and that’s why I take most of my courses there. The other platforms I’ve checked out so far do offer good courses, and, in any case, are worth a look. I’ve picked a few criteria and compared them for the different MOOCs. This is neither an official comparison nor will it be complete, there may be information that I simply couldn’t find by just looking at the About pages and the FAQs. But if you’re interested in MOOCs, maybe you’ll find it helpful.

Continue reading “MOOCy Monday: A Comparison of Learning Platforms” →

MOOCy Monday: Imagining Other Earths on coursera

by GHLearner

Warning: What you are about to read may sound like the newest infatuation of a teenage girl.

otherearths-logoIn a sense, that’s what I feel like whenever I find something as exciting as the course ‘Imagining Other Earths’ on coursera. And that’s why I have to talk about it. It’s the best course evah 11tyoneone!!!

Seriously, all the MOOCs I’ve seen so far, on different platforms with different themes, were carefully designed, interesting, educational, and mostly well presented. But there are some that are outstanding in the good crowd. Imagining Other Earths is one of them.

Can you imagine being confronted with topics and themes that always seemed somewhat dry when you learned or read about them? Watching long and complicated mathematical formulae certainly isn’t exciting for people who aren’t mathematicians, physicists or astronomists, right? Wrong!. Professor David Spergel from Princeton understands to present these themes in a way that make every new bit of information interesting and captivating. Watching how he ‘plugs in’ data into formulae and determines distances, the power of impact and the speed of objects all of a sudden makes you want to  brush up on your algebra and follow the calculations. These, certainly, are the attributes of an excellent teacher.

Continue reading “MOOCy Monday: Imagining Other Earths on coursera” →

MOOCy Monday — New Year, New Course

by GHLearner

moocMOOCs, Massive Open Online Courses, were initially the reason I started this blog. It’s been meandering off topic a bit — cough — but MOOCs are very much an important part of my life ever since I discovered them last spring (I’m always late, they’ve been around for a while).

With my dog Jack’s accident and death, I lost track for a while, but by now, I really am back in the mood for learning new things. And I’ve signed up for many courses, more than I could ever actively participate in.

So, why do I sign up to so many? Because I’m afraid that they will disappear and I won’t have the opportunity to peruse them later. By signing up, I  can download the lectures, download the captions for the lectures, and additional material. I also get access to recommended reading, to discussions and more. Even if I won’t be able to participate in the course, if I have access to all that information, I can always, in my own time, work through the material. I find this a marvellous opportunity and am utterly grateful for that. I initially started out with coursera.org, but by now have explored several other providers of online courses. There is so much there, I hardly know where to start… Continue reading “MOOCy Monday — New Year, New Course” →

A Lifetime of Literature — A Guest Post by Dave Ward

by GHLearner

Today I have the pleasure to present to you a guest post from Dave Ward, who is one of my peers from Englisch Composition I: Achieving Expertise (on Coursera). Dave had his Case Study published, and since then he throws out a regular stream of publications.

Continue reading “A Lifetime of Literature — A Guest Post by Dave Ward” →

Blogging 101: Love Your Theme

by GHLearner

cropped-fancy33.jpgToday’s assignment: try out at least three other themes — even if you’re happy with the one you first chose. Try one you’re drawn to, and one you would never use. (From Blogging 101)

Again, I have to skip, because I did that when I started this blog. I love trying out themes and playing around with the options the different layouts offer. I played with the themes again when I did the branding exercise for Creativity, Innovation and Change. And so, today, I shall chat about why I chose the theme I use, and what will take up much of my time over the next few weeks. Because something happened which may be insignificant to you, but is very uplifting and encouraging to me.

Continue reading “Blogging 101: Love Your Theme” →

Blogging 101: Dreamreader

by GHLearner

Today’s Assignment: publish a post for your dream reader, and include a new-to-you element in it. (from Blogging101).

I’m combining that with an assignment from English Composition II on coursera. I’m not submitting the assignments, because I don’t have the time to keep up with it right now, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t write at least part of it. The assignment there is:
Who I Am as a Writer with a Cause: An Autobiographical Narrative.

I don’t really have a cause, so I’ll leave that part out, but I can write a bit about what writing means to me. And since this is quite personal, this is also new for this blog, so the Blogging 101 requirement would be met, too, I suppose. Continue reading “Blogging 101: Dreamreader” →

Logic is lovely, so is language.

by GHLearner

But… sometimes it can be a bit overwhelming. I signed up to the coursera MOOC “Think Again: How to Reason and Argue,” and am also active in the Stanford Online course “SciWrite: Writing in the Sciences”, and while SciWrite is not too demanding yet, Think Again really needs a lot of work. While I understand the concepts when they are presented in the lecture, when I do the exercises, I make too many mistakes. So, a lot of reviewing is in order. The ‘So’, btw, is a speech marker, it shows that what follows is a conclusion. Ha!

Anyway, this prevents me from writing the post I wanted to write about social networking this week, and instead I’ll post a few pretty pictures. 🙂 Continue reading “Logic is lovely, so is language.” →

Curanderismo: Mexican Traditional Medicine on Coursera

by GHLearner
cheotorresasheninkamino
Dr. Eliseo “Cheo” Torres (right) and Asheninka Mino. Copyright © The University of New Mexico. All Rights Reserved. (http://www.unm.edu/legal.html)

Just for the fun of it, I signed up to “Curanderismo” on Coursera. It is already in its fourth week of, in total, an eight week course. It is presented by Dr. Eliseo “Cheo” Torres and his colleagues from the University of New Mexico.
If you are interested in holistic medicine, herbs, and treatments, then check it out. It may be a bit late to do the quizzes and get a certificate, but for getting an introduction in what Curanderismo is about, watching the videos alone is educational.

Continue reading “Curanderismo: Mexican Traditional Medicine on Coursera” →