Studying online for a certificate is still a unimaginable for many people out there. Whilst I didn't doubt the possibility of earning a verifiable certificate in an online course, like most other persons, I didn't hope it would be anything close to a "real-class" experience until joined edx. Click hear to read more about edx, available courses and how to register. For free!
Having successfully completed an online course (my first) and earning a certificate for my achievement, am excited to share personal experience with edx- the platform on which i enrolled as a "virtual student". Edx is among the hundreds, perhaps thousands of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) available on the internet except that it stands out. Courses available on the edx platform are diverse, covers several interest areas and are taught by some of the world class universities.
After an initial rush in which I registered for multiple courses relating to my interest, I eventually settled for just one course due to challenges which i didn't anticipate. Every course has its own requirements and prerequisites which every enrolling student must posses to be able to have course satisfaction and meet the minimum grade for the award of a certificate. I dropped some courses along the line as I discover that I didn't possess the necessary material and or prerequisites for those courses. But most importantly, are some peculiar challenges which relates to internet connectivity and time constraints.
I finally opted for ColWri 2.2x : Principle of Written English which has a "soft requirement" but wasn't short of standard and quality. In fact, it was quiet engaging even for an English speaker like me. Like all other courses, lecture videos are released each week and every student is expected to watch the videos either through streaming or downloading and watching them offline. The challenge for me was in streaming the videos as the 3G network of all mobile carrier in my vicinity was either non-existence or unstable, so, I had to opt for downloading and watching the videos offline. But edx lecture videos are exceptionally of high resolution and quality, in effect, its video sizes are large thus, downloading a single video could take hours with multiple failed downloading attempts. The videos sizes also hold another constraint, since i depend on my android smart phones throughout the course, my monthly data subscription couldn't cope with a regular video downloading, so, i sometimes use my friends BlackBerry(BB) device to download videos since BB data subscription is relatively cheap and large in size. Even after downloading the videos, it took me quiet a while to figure out the way to watch them. Most phones default video players doesn't support edx video resolution and format and as in my own case, it took me quiet some time to understand this, not until I installed a third party video player (MX player) before I could watch the videos. Though, some courses do provide transcript of each video, however, transcripts are not always a substitute to watching the videos.
Most videos are based on a topic and are often accompanied by homework. Each home work has a due date for submission and students may be required to read additional text material on the platform or on an external site whose link would be provided before being able to effectively answer the homework questions. These activities could be time consuming and in fact, time factor almost made me to want to unregister all of my courses. I eventually dropped all other courses except ColWri - as I was missing due dates for homework submission. As for ColWri, i was meeting up with assignment due dates since i devoted my weekends - when am less busy - to watching the videos, reading text materials and answering the home work questions, in the end, I got a certificate !
My experience with ColWri was thrilling, it totally change my perspective of online learning and also proved challenging, not in the context of internet connectivity and time constraint that i explained above, but of efforts, skills and intelligence expected of each students.
Asides the certificate, enrolling for ColWri brought me personal development, I was privilege to learn new things while improving on the ones I already knew. A post on this blog: Education Sector ; Solving the Unemployment Problem was originally written as a draft essay and submitted for grades as it was required. It was edited multiple times, thanks to the innovative peer review assessment initiative of edx and the powerful editing techniques taught during the course. So, it was a journey of personal development and improvements.
Am currently enrolled for "Medicinal Chemistry" on edx and so far, I would say am learning ! I hope to also share my experience with you in the near future. As a way to show case my achievements and encourage more people to also enroll for a course of interest, am creating a dedicated page on this blog as a hall of certificates in online courses to show off my achievements. ( Click here to view my certificate(s) )
Recommend reading : You can feed and educate a child today, at no cost to your pocket. Click here to learn how.
Post a Comment Facebook Disqus