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Rec'd with a technical glitch. --gw ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 8 Oct 2012 11:34:33 -0400 From: "Leibowitz, Faye R" <[log in to unmask]> To: 'Open Lib/Info Sci Education Forum' <[log in to unmask]> Subject: Coursera: Think again I'm currently enrolled in the University of Toronto's "Learn to Program: The Fundamentals" Python programming course through Coursera. I expect to learn something in this course, but it won't be easy. As expected, the course material is challenging. The major drawback to the MOOC platform is that there is no way to get help from an instructor. There are thousands of students enrolled in the course. Students can post questions to class discussion lists, but there is no guarantee that all questions will be answered satisfactorily. Generally speaking, though, it is a good "no-risk" way to learn something new. Homework is assigned and graded, but no college credits are involved. And you can review the recorded lectures as many times as you need to in order to learn the concepts. Just be aware that if you have questions, you are pretty much on your own. Maybe humanities/social sciences courses are different than math/science courses. Best wishes, Faye Leibowitz University of Pittsburgh [log in to unmask]