First Coursera MOOC Exam

Terrifyingly, tonight underwent my first MOOC exam - a 60 question multiple choice affair for the Coursera - Introduction to Digital Sound Design. I got through with a 55 out of 60 correct answers. One of the my wrong answers was 'If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, is there sound?'. I said 'yes' and I was wrong! So, the birds and worms and snoozing leopards don't hear the sound? Whatever...

Some larger teaching, learning and assessment problems with this... First, we had to watch 22 video lectures (several hours content) before we were asked to 'do' anything, and then we were asked to 'do' a multichoice exam - hardly the greatest learning project... Also, the teaching style is hardly advanced or even 'blended' and is certainly not interactive... For hour after hour, we're watching Steve Everett, the tutor, talking to camera... As lecturers, we know we talk too much... Steve is no exception.

There were no low-stakes exams here - one could easily have been conducted after a week. And there was no advance indication of the exam's extent, duration or type. It turned out that it was a multichoice exam, with 60 questions, taking about 30 minutes to do - this could have been spelt out in advance.

A good course, with strong information. But it's delivered in a very monotonous manner. Just because it's video, doesn't mean that it's rounded teaching, learning or assessment.