Coursera | More Initial Reactions

Course: Introduction to Sustainability, Week One

- Reviewed all of this week's course material
- Participated actively in a few forums and quizzes
- Researched the team at Coursera working behind the scenes
- Connected with Intro2Sustainability peers in multiple countries

1. I would like to determine what percentage of content my subscriptions exposes me to compared to total available content.  The average user? What information does Coursera track about user behavior? Any publicly available analytic?

2. Questions regarding quality standards, discusdion monitoring...groupthink and traditional critisisms of virtual forums.

3. Coursera facilitates hyperspeed merging of academic interests and the establishment of associations between people whom might otherwise not have met due to a variety of given barriers (institutional, linguistic, class, ethnic, situational, etc.) -- It is doing what study abroad, professional exchange, and international aid are doing, but a gazillion time faster, more equitably, and at a fraction of the cost!

4.  Coursera is a progressive company, not unlike Google, but comparatively, a very small and tech-y team. 

5.  24,000+ students enrolled in #Intro2sustainability !!

6.  Forums, feedback and frustrations! 

Coursera | Day One - Inititial observations

Course: Introduction to Sustainability, Week One
- Logged on, and followed instructor's directions.  I created a profile earlier this week.
- Attended course orientation and took basic quiz.
- Previewed Week 1 material and engaged in discussion forums [project, getting to know your classmates]
- Downloaded and briefly explored course materials
- Used tags to connect with classmates (anthropology, empathy, health, DC, permaculture)

Initial observations/Topics for further reflection

- I began reviewing one of the course texts before joining the virtual community; some of the photos included in it are very interesting! Available to download for free online;  no ability to virtually highlight or mark up the text and burdensome file.

- Coursera is a community with amazing power:  By linking people with common interests, it can bring a comparative or multi-setting dynamic to any existing project or paper, very quickly and with remarkable ease.  By connecting longsince-students with recent graduates on topics of shared interest, it can reinvigorate any discipline.  By proving students separated from their studies - for a variety of rea$ons -  to their missing coursework (or unemployed folk with resources!), it has the potential to create futures.

- I have 24,000+ classmates.

- I have already connected with someone across the ocean with whom I share specific interests and relatively close proximity in social networks.

- I imagine some people will use this as a venue to engage in when in search of a compatible mate.  Any "We met at Coursera" wedding stories to date?

- Tompkins course is very well-designed and highly customizable.  Wonder how it compares to other Coursera courses and how it has changed over time?

- Connections to the twitterverse and links to Facebook; use of tags, formatting and hyperlinks in posts.

Coursera time logged:  Approx. 3 hours and wishing I could wrap my mind around all this but have to log off! #bummer.