A month ago I began New Year by starting a course Roman Architecture on Coursera.
The course itself offers various experiences, not all of them positive, but that’s topic for a later day. What I want to say now, is I am dumbfounded with poor preparedness of a lot of fellow “students”. Yes, some of them are, in fact, young and in university, but scanning the “introduce yourself” discussion forums, I have an impression majority are mature (some – overripe) adults, with wealth of life experiences, professions and skills behind them. Yet, there are so many among us who can not express themselves clearly, do not think clearly, appeal to pity, complain, resolve to blame, even throw tantrums or, reversely, assume an “irritated policeman” role.
About that lack of clarity. Week 3 requires students to write a short assignment and post it; each one then will evaluate 3 assignments by others. Topic is more conversational than technical: “Does New Technology Lead to Revolution or Revolution to New Technology?
Authors are supposed to use examples of Roman construction technology (in particular, Roman concrete) in addition to contemporary ones, and structure 250 words-essay in traditional way: thesis, middle part, supporting examples and re-statement of thesis. What could be easier – especially for people who HAD been to high school and university(ies) and HAVE real-life experience with business/professional correspondence.
My god.
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