Did anyone take the Coursera course?

[Horus]

Horus, you are acting crazy. Do you own stock in the Coursera company? Otherwise, I don't see why you should be so upset that the courses did not give me the knowledge and skills I was looking for. I wasn't taking the courses to become a professor. I was taking them to enhance my ability to do some things I need to do every day around the house. Not even career or job related in the slightest. Your outrage over this is just bizarre. How you think sharing my personal experience equates to belittling others is beyond me.

No Glyph you are not sharing your experiences, you are as usual making your typical “I know better than you” posts. I could not give a toss about why you took the course or if it gave you the knowledge you were seeking. I had asked a simple question of people frequenting this forum who may have taken this course as some had expressed prior interest in doing so, it was in this vein that I wrongly believed it would be of interest to those who like me see Egyptology as merely a diversion and a hobby. I have never expressed any desire to obtain academic qualifications or otherwise in this subject and as far as I know the other interested parties have not done so either. In the world of academia I see your profession as pretty low down on the ‘useful to mankind’ scale of professions. So let me reiterate as I know that our ex colonial brothers and sisters have an uncanny ability to mangle the spoken word as much as they do so with the written ones, I took the short course as a hobby, a pastime and nothing more.

It is also typical of you when challenged to try and use some form of put down, so no I do not hold stocks in the company and if acting crazy is to put you back in your box then I will go along with that. No doubt while we are analysing each other I could ask if you were an only child and did Daddy always let you get your own way? Because that is how you come over to most people on here. I have yet to see you write a constructive post whether it is about ex-pats, Egyptian husbands (other than your own), Egyptian customs, visiting tourists, dress sense, relation ships with other Egyptians, you are capable of running the whole gamut and giving a negative opinion to everything and we haven’t even covered your open dislike of anything British, but that is quite understandable given your colonial background.

How nice it would have been to have read a post from you that encouraged other people to improve their own knowledge and understanding by them taking what is after all a short, free, sponsored course instead of turning it into a critique of other peoples abilities, but then again we expected no less from you.

[HEPZIBAH]

Thank you LovelyLadyLux for the information.

[Glyphdoctor]

I'm curious to know what kind of courses are offered by this company that are helpful for normal, everyday things around the home. I've only seen the Egyptology courses mentioned by others and I was not likely to be looking those up.

Something about the science of cooking and another on chicken behavior and welfare.

[Horus]

Fablux, That is what I thought that you along with Carrie and I think BY had expressed some interest in taking the course and that is why I made the original post. No doubt like me you would have known quite a bit already, but it was interesting from my point of view to be forced into paying more attention to the actual timeline of Ancient Egypt in relation to the various dynasties and the importance of many cities, some with modern names that were associated with each or several dynasties. Most of us tend to focus on the popular stuff because it is more interesting and the more mundane things like timelines, kings and dynasties, pottery the general background things tend to get neglected, so it was good to brush up a bit. There were several videos each week and plenty of associated reading and they would keep you on the ball by sometimes setting questions that you needed to have understood several weeks earlier. It was not by any standards too difficult, but you did need to do quite a bit off your own bat, so more than just a basic understanding was required. The final submission phase was enjoyable, we had to present our own equivalent of the course by selecting six objects to represent the timeline or a specific part thereof of Ancient Egypt and to give all the museum links and a reason for our choices which would involve more background study in order to present your submission which was then peer reviewed before a final grading by the lecturers that also includes the course work.

One thing I would say was that they were pretty keen on seeing that the work was your own and in order to get the certificate of achievement they went through several security checks. One was to retype a few passages of text and software analysed your style to determine it was you doing the work. The other was to give the Uni permission to activate your webcam and it took a photograph of you and a second one in which you had to hold up some form of identification in front of the camera. So from your perspective it may have been difficult with a slow internet to comply with this, although it was not necessary just to take the course, only to be awarded a certificate. It is a shame that you missed out as I am sure that yourself and other like minded people would enjoy the challenge, I do believe that they may be running some more courses next year, so no doubt as a past student they will give me some sort of notification, if they do I will send you a PM.

[carrie]

Horus, I don't pretend to be an expert in Egyptology and I thought that the course would be informative and useful, so it was, although I didn't finish it because like Fablux my internet kept going down and I got very frustrated with the whole thing. (not the course but the net)
I didn't want any qualifications or certificate of achievement, I will look on the site and regardless of others opinions will sign up again if anything interesting to me comes up.

[Winged Isis]

Nice to see you on here Horus, a breath of fresh air as always! Thanks for the information. I have considered this course a couple of times but decided to try in the future as my timetable is full at present. How's your little Annie?

[Horus]

@ Carrie, what a shame that you too did not get the opportunity to continue, I detected from reading your earlier post on that particular thread that you were a little concerned as to how you would go on with it. Let me assure you that you would have been OK and provided you were prepared to dedicate several hours per week you would have come through it OK. You are able to go at your own pace inasmuch as just so long as you have completed the course videos, literature and weekly test quizzes and the final submission and peers reviews, you go at your own pace.
Contrary to what has been said, the various forums were usually very friendly and helpful (you get back what you give in my opinion). So do sign up for any future ones if you are still interested, we are not talking heavy stuff here because the vast majority of people who frequent these forums are not interested in that, most just want to have a better understanding of their chosen hobby, for that is all it really is, a distraction and pass time and this is one subject where a gifted amateur can often equal a professional in their knowledge of this subject.

@ WI, Thank you for the welcome and I hope that the information was in some way helpful to you and you find more time in the future, no need to take my opinion on the course, but I think that BY has probably given a reasonable precise of the value of this course in his own reply.
On my visiting here, well you only have to see some of the previous replies to realise that this forum is probably the least welcoming in many ways. I will always reply in the same vein as that in which I am spoken to, but many newcomers may be not be so bold and never post again, which is a pity.
As to little Annie, well she is fine and of course not so little anymore, she will be 3 next April. You can always follow some of our walks over on the Gold side as I often post videos and little vignettes of our outings together.

[Brian Yare]

I completed the course: The Art and Archaeology of Ancient Nubia (Emory University) and found it very useful as a refresher - I previously took a Distance Learning course on Ancient Nubia back in about 1999 (Exeter University).

I also completed: Archaeology's Dirty Little Secrets (Brown University). This was a refresher for a Distance Learning course in about 2000 (Exeter University).

Recently I started: The Fall and Rise of Jerusalem (Tel Aviv University) as a refresher for a course of Evening Classes in 2002-3 (Birmingham University). Also: The Ancient Greeks (Wesleyan University).

All of these courses I have found interesting and would have completed if I had had better wifi connection.

I do the free component only. I have no interest in paying for certification as I agree that this has very little value career-wise.

Coursera Inc. appears to be quite a large organization. They are very well organised and offer a wide range of courses that may be of interest. I have no connection with them except as a satisfied user.

[Winged Isis]

@ Horus: I do pop into the gold side about once a month in hope of it living up to its name of Egypt4u, but a quick glance at the topics and posters always tells me it's still 99% UKites talking 99% UK stuff, I pop out again pretty quickly. I will make a point at having a look at your little love though.

And of course your reluctance to comment on here is full appreciated.

[Horus]

Please remember WT that it is only like that because it is mainly UK people keeping it going, but people like Jayway and LLL chip in their two pennorth quite often and unless others drop in for a visit and get some new topics going then I am afraid it has to reflect the interests of the few who do post. Everyone is welcome and as they say “you can lead a horse to water” etc. It can only have Egypt related topics if people bother to post them or comment on them, but unfortunately the two forums are too closely related topic wise and most things Egyptian tend to be on here, whereas we have a much broader general range of topics from hobbies such as photography, little travelogues, a bit of cookery, short stories, local topics and places of interest, a bit of gardening now and again, just about anything people want to chat about, if we did not do that the forum would be lost. To be honest I don’t see any of that changing as the general interest in Egypt in general seems to have declined and even on this forum it is usually the mundane goings on of Luxor life, so with the boot on the other foot most people other than those few involved in that daily life have little interest in that, so where does it leave us all? Years ago we used to have some interesting discussions, but who dares to put anything on anymore, it will just be met with either derision, mockery, sniping or outright hostility, you really cannot win.

[FABlux]

It is a shame that you missed out as I am sure that yourself and other like minded people would enjoy the challenge, I do believe that they may be running some more courses next year, so no doubt as a past student they will give me some sort of notification, if they do I will send you a PM.

Thank you Horus that would be useful. I have done a few of the Exeter Uni courses & enjoyed them, plus have quite a lot of books on the subjects so a good excuse for a browse I particularly enjoyed their Art & Religion course. I am not interested in getting qualifications, just the subject matter.

[Horus]

Fablux, I suspect that most people do it for a similar reason, I am not even sure if any sort of certificate is given, I think it may just be some sort of Statement of Accomplishment if you went through the full registration process. I will let you know when or if indeed I do actually receive anything by post or maybe even email, I do know that in the near future (maybe by next week) the course will allow us to see our final grading score which seems to be determined by Levels i.e. 1,2 & 3. Most of us can see our provisional level, but it is still subject to the scrutiny and assessment by the lecturers.

[Horus]

Just to say that yes you do get a Statement of Accomplishment and it is available to download online after you have received an email notification from the University. You can also see how well you did as a percentage pass mark and contrary to my previous assumption it does not include any Level of achievement just the percentage you passed with. I think that this now allows me to teach Egyptology and to take guided tours around the monuments.

[Winged Isis]

Mubrook, Proff! :

[Horus]

Mubrook, Proff! :