Self-Directed Learning (Post 1)

Choosing a Course

Today I have decided to embark on a journey to learn the guitar!

In March 2020, I discovered that Coursera (Coursera, n.d.) provides free courses. These courses range from Music to Management. I was over-ambitious and enrolled in over 50 classes. After I started working through one course I realized that the commitment was too big and I scaled back. I was trying to decide which course to take and I eventually chose something that was both familiar and unfamiliar: Guitar for Beginners.

I have a Bachelor of Music in Composition so it would suffice to say that I have a strong understanding of music. However, throughout my whole degree, I could never figure out how to write for guitar or why it was so popular. It is high time I learn how to play - campfire marshmallows here I come!!

Click on the following link to access the course: https://www.coursera.org/learn/guitar/home/welcome (Berklee College of Music, n.d.).

My Guitar

My father was always a big guitarist. My sisters' and I used to sing for hours while he played folk and popular songs. My father has owned many guitars in his life but this is the one (Figure 1) that was left in Red Deer when he moved to Taiwan. My youngest sister spent time learning it when we all still lived at home. It's been years since anyone has played it so hopefully, the strings hold out for this course! Time to crack open the case and see what we learn!

Figure 1
My Father's Guitar

References:
Berklee College of Music. (n.d.) Guitar for Beginners. Coursera. https://www.coursera.org/learn/guitar/home/info

Coursera. (n.d.) Welcome back. https://www.coursera.org/

Comments

Week 1: Welcome to Introduction to Guitar (Post 2)

Alrighty well, today we completed the first week of the course! Yay! My fingers are already sore and I only learned how to play two chords so that's good... Mobile Learning and Coursera I'm fascinated by Coursera's apps. (n.d.) The app is really easy to use and convenient. I can flip it open and access my course at any time! The app is available on my phone but also on my iPad. Another feature that I discovered was that when I left the Coursera app the video I was watching appeared in the corner so that I could keep learning while I was surfing the internet. This is a wonderful example of mobile learning done right! Course Organization I'm also really interested in the way they have organized their classes. They all seem to be a combination of teaching activities, practice quizzes, and a final summative assessment. It even makes use of the discussion boards (although I haven't participated yet!). In Guitar for Beginners (Berklee College of Music, n.d.a), t...

Week 6: Remember when.... (Post 6)

Remember when I said "Wow thank you so much for resetting my deadlines Coursera!" back in post 4? Well, I clicked on that button (Figure 1) and it brought me right back to Week 1! Figure 1 Reset my deadlines (Berklee College of Music, n.d.) I'm feeling extremely frustrated with the setback as I have to go through all the teaching activities, quizzes, discussions, and exams to get back to the week that I was on. Excuse me while I just slam through all the previous materials again (Figure 2)... Figure 2 Spinning clock while I jump ahead (Bootgum, n.d.). Well, I made a huge mistake! It looks like when I reset my deadlines it closed all the quizzes and discussions until they are released which won't be until June 15th, 2020. I'm not sure I'm a big fan of this method honestly, I much prefer self-paced learning where I can control over when I take the practice quizzes - especially for a MOOC. Closing off a course so that lessons and quizzes are rel...

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