The project that's been eating up my time lately

[moria923]

You probably know that I'm the type of person who enjoys taking courses for fun. In a perfect world, I really would be a perpetual student (and find a way to be useful and earn money while doing so!) So when I found out about Coursera

Comments

[lyonesse]

speaking as actual university faculty, if someone's personal experience enlightens their analysis of something, i give 'em credit as long as they're clear on their source. the more so if it's a subject like literature, where anecdote is a relatively reasonable singular for data, and even more if i find them actually enlightening.

[treacle_well]

That sounds like fun, and you just did some good marketing for Coursera, because I had to go take a look and now I'm considering taking something (probably more of an audit) in the near future.

I agree with lyonesse about the paper grading. Unless the paper was nothing but one big ramble talking about her own experience, the writer probably deserves at least a 2. Being able to connect new things in our experience to our existing experience is important to learning, and if reading it enriched your experience of the story, especially if she managed to fit in a sentence or two that was more "academic" in your view, then the paper had some merit, and deserved better than a 1. Even in credit-giving college courses not all classes are intended to create rigorous "academic" writers. In the Humanities they generally do want to help students synthesize material and use critical thinking--one can demonstrate those skills while still writing in a personal manner, including personal experience.

[greenlily]

I look forward to reading more about your experiences with Coursera--it's beginning to crop up in the college discussion blogs where I lurk. :)

[ultimatepsi]

Coursera sounds really cool. Thanks for pointing it out!

[mycroftca]

It certainly felt a bit overwhelming when we started last week; of course, I'm an idiot, I didn't sign up for just one, but I also signed up for the World Music class. Still, fun to feel like I've stepped back to college...