I choose a course from Coursera (https://www.coursera.org/) based on my major that I am currently studying at UVic — Psychology. The course is Introduction of Psychology offered by Yale university.

It’s a beginner level course that need approximately 14 hours to compete, but learner can flexible scheduling of their study time. This course has 7 modules, each module provides videos, readings, and quizzes. After taking this course, learners will development skills of reasoning, problem solving, critical thinking, and general knowledge about psychology.

I took module 1 of this quiz, which is a basically introduction of the instructor and this course. This course is generalized and suitable for beginners to learn. The course schedule is flexible. My evaluation criteria are based on course content and course composition. The course is well organized.

Compared to traditional’ courses:

legitimacy: The courses are authoritative and provided by instructors from different universities. The one i was taking is taught by Paul Bloom from Yale. I search him on Ratemyprofessor, and the score is very high. So, the legitimacy of this course and the website is guaranteed. It offers the same course with same instructor as in universities.

Autonomy: Online classes require more autonomy than traditional classes because the schedule is flexible and students need to manage their own time for study.

Connection with your peers and the instructor(s): Lack of communication is a disadvantage of learning on the website. There is no way to communicate with the instructor or other students except comments on the course page.

Assessment and evaluation: There are module quizzes, and most are multiple choices questions, evaluation is based on the system and the preset correct answer.

Based on the information of this course, I think it is a xMooc. This course is a combination of a pre-recorded video lecture with quizzes, tests, or other assessments, and there is no communications between learners and instructors. xMOOCs are centered around a professor rather than around a community of students.

Reflection

I choose this module activity because I took other online classes before, and I like this way of learning especially the form of xMooc. I am kind of social phobia. I don’t like group work, and group discussions. For students like me, xMooc are the ideal way to learn. We can watch the course recordings based on our own time and we don’t have to communicate with others. Mooc is also benefit for other people, such as people who have worked. They don’t have time to study like a full-time students. So, this form of classes allow them to study at spare time. I do think Mooc is open course it’s open for everyone as long as you pay. (some of them are free), Simplest example: i am not a students of Yale, but I can take the course taught by professor of Yale.