Recently I have enrolled an online
training on EdX.com and completed all the lessons under “Understanding User
Needs” course which is prepared by Michigan University. Earlier I have taken
online courses from coursera, which is another popular platform which provides
online courses from the world’s best universities. Now let me share my
experience on edX shortly:
Online,
access from where you are
- It is online so you can access whenever and wherever you are. In the weekend,
I took courses when I was in summer house where we do not have wi-fi but I can
reach the course content by sharing internet of my mobile phone. The internet
quota used is reasonable so it is really no problem. Apart from this, everyday
I go to work by bus, and it takes my more than 2 hours in total. The bus has
wi-fi and I can easily resume the lessons while traveling. It has mobile
applications as well but I do prefer to attend trainings from my laptop which
has bigger screen so I can concentrate on the videos and presentations better.
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You Need to Document That You've
Done Your Homework
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Back
to Homeworks –
After completing each lesson, you are given an assignment. In other words, in
order to complete each lesson, you need to your homework. The homeworks in the
training I completed can take up to 8 hours. You need to provide the homework
in the format which is described and then you submit it. Do not think about not
doing your homework or submitting unsatisfactory works because they are all
assessed by your peers who are also resuming this course and low quality on
these assignments will bring low notes and then you may not pass the course.
One of the assessments was about writing a report on the main take-aways of interviews. Here you can find my report:
http://volkanyorulmaz.blogspot.com/2018/07/e-book-experience-for-google-play-books.html
Peer
Reviews May Suck -
For me, the biggest disadvantage of taking an online course from EdX is
receiving really slow peer reviews to my assignments. An assignment is reviewed
by two peers and then you receive your grade for your “homework”. In my case,
within one week, I have only received 2 finalized peer reviews. What was more
annoying was in one lesson, a peer evaluated my assignment in a subjective way
and he/she graded many of my inputs as “poor” whereas the other peer graded as
“very good”. I believe some users of EdX generally do this because I have seen
similar comments in the discussion box. Related with this issue, I have sent a
notification to EdX team about the user’s possible fake and subjective
evaluations and grading but as of the date of this content, I could not receive
a reply.
Good
Content by Good Lecturer
– I have not been to Michigan University before but of course I have heard
about its reputation. While attending
the lessons, I clearly understand the quality of the content and its smooth
presentation by the lecturer. The platform enables us to download materials as
well which we can refer while preparing for the assessments or later on for any
need of re-invent the concepts we have covered.
In conclusion, my advice for all
potential edX learners or any other popular platform which provides online
courses is that if it crosses your interest or mind that taking a course is
worth doing, then go for it and enrol the course. Don’t let your
hesitations get in the way of bettering yourself because you deserve to grow
both personally and professionally.
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