It's a shame that the chemistry course didn't do so well for you. I've still only done part of the first week so I've got all the rest of it to look forward to yet. Luckily it's all available even after the course has officially finished so there won't be any rush. One thing that I did like, from that first week, was that it didn't have any part where you had to leave comments. The forensic science course was terrible for that and the programming one had an aspect of it as well although not as much. Commenting for the sake of it seems pointless, especially with the way it's set up, it's hard to get any kind of proper discussion going. I'm glad you're happier with the archaeology one though.
There's another expermient one coming up, did you notice? I'll steer well clear, methinks. Its great that the courses stay up online so you can catch up, and at least you can still read otehr comments and click through to the flicker/twitter images they link to each week if you want..
I agree on the commenting for the sake of it thing, they've got the balance right on the archeology course, ask questions you *can* answer if the mood strikes (and I often do) but often I don't bother cos other people have given enough of an answer, usually varied enough to make the multiple comments worth reading too. Not much discussion exactly but a lot of "oooh, never thought of that" type things which is good.
I did see the new experiment course and I don't think I'll be doing it either! I don't know how long the old course info will be available though, I don't imagine it'll be up there for years and years.
One of the downsides to the commenting thing on FutureLearn is not getting any notification that someone's responded, especially if you're asking for help. I hope the comments about things you wouldn't have thought of are helpful ones and not ones from people who are way ahead of everyone else like on the programming course! That was not always helpful.
Not sure this kind of course design lends itself well to the experimental side of things, really... And not years but a few months should be handy, they can always run it again like the android one I guess.
That's a point actually, might be worth mentionig that to the course providers, though I'm not sure its something tehy can affect, down to futurelean to add extra functionality to the site I suppose.. And yep the comments have mainly been useful, one or two clearly from anoraks or experts with no social skills but in general its useful with an "oh wow, did you realise" sort of tone to it , which is alwaays good :)
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I agree on the commenting for the sake of it thing, they've got the balance right on the archeology course, ask questions you *can* answer if the mood strikes (and I often do) but often I don't bother cos other people have given enough of an answer, usually varied enough to make the multiple comments worth reading too. Not much discussion exactly but a lot of "oooh, never thought of that" type things which is good.
Reply
One of the downsides to the commenting thing on FutureLearn is not getting any notification that someone's responded, especially if you're asking for help. I hope the comments about things you wouldn't have thought of are helpful ones and not ones from people who are way ahead of everyone else like on the programming course! That was not always helpful.
Reply
That's a point actually, might be worth mentionig that to the course providers, though I'm not sure its something tehy can affect, down to futurelean to add extra functionality to the site I suppose.. And yep the comments have mainly been useful, one or two clearly from anoraks or experts with no social skills but in general its useful with an "oh wow, did you realise" sort of tone to it , which is alwaays good :)
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