Review of Guitar for Beginners (Post 7)

It looks like my hand has been forced and it's now time for a review of Coursera's Guitar for Beginners (Berklee College of Music, n.d.a).

Why did I use Coursera?

Quite simple - their marketing worked! I started this course back at the end of March when I first found out about this assignment. The end of March was when the COVID-19 panic was fresh and Coursera (n.d.) was marketing free classes to help spend the time. At first, I signed up for a course on success and leadership. I completed a week of activities before reading the full details of Assignment 2 and realized that I would have no clear progress to show for it. That's when I went back to the course selection list and found something else I wanted to learn. I had a lonely guitar sitting in the corner of my office so I decided to tackle Guitar for Beginners by Berklee College of Music (n.d.a). 

What did I hope to learn?

I started the course hoping to learn how to read music and fingerpick chords and melodies on the guitar. 

What did I achieve?

I managed to fingerpick 2 chords (see post 5)! However, there wasn't enough practice or opportunity to solidify reading music before I reset the deadlines and lost access to the rest of the course (see post 6). 

Critical Reflection of Coursera

I like how organized Coursera was. The week's activities are clearly written, the time commitment is written under each activity, and there is a little arrow inside each activity which facilitates navigation.

Teaching Videos

The teaching videos were well done. This was where the majority of the instruction was held. The background was simple which made the instructor the focal point of the video. The video was accessible as it had a transcript that highlighted as the instructor spoke. The transcript was a very interesting addition (read post 2 for a detailed discussion). Additionally, I appreciated the short videos, knowing that the lecture was only 8 minutes long helped motivate me to get back to the course. 

What I found that was missing was Gagné's nine events of instruction (Pappas, 2015). The teaching video did not grab my attention, or tell me the objective of the lesson. There was plenty of online guidance but very little practice or feedback.

When evaluating the teaching videos, they would be considered as a broadcast media (Bates, 2014). According to Bates, the continuum of knowledge dissemination places the xMOOC on the broadcast side of the continuum and the cMOOC on the communicative side (2014). I didn't know there was a difference between MOOCs so I did a little more research. According to ExtensionEngine, an xMOOC is an eXtended Massive Open Online Course which is basically a traditional university course taught online to a huge number of students (2019). One critique that they had was that the teacher-student interaction is eliminated and the student-student interaction is limited (ExtensionEngine, 2019). 

In short, the accessibility available through the transcript in the video was extremely well done. The clear description of the time investment required was also a bonus. The drawback was that the videos were not built to align with Gagné's nine events of instruction and did not reinforce the learning as effectively as they could have. 

Formative Assessments

The formative assessment took shape in two ways in this course, through practice quizzes and mid-video quizzes. I was disappointed by the use of practice activities in this course. The quizzes only used multiple-choice as it's way to assess. This was extremely disappointing and limited the breadth of the questions and understanding that could be monitored. I also felt like there weren't enough activities to solidify the concepts that were taught. 

Summative Assessments

The summative assessment was basically non-existent. At the end of each week, there was a discussion prompt and a quiz. The official quiz only has two questions (Berklee College of Music, n.d.b). The first question is a reflection on what I learned over the last week and the second question is if I shared my reflection in the course forum. There were no questions on the course material or any practical assessment. This is a course on learning how to play the guitar but playing the guitar is never assessed. 

Learning Community

What learning community? The discussion prompt is where the learning community is developed however it is inaccessible until it has been unlocked by the clock. This may be an effort to have students synchronously meet up but it does not have an option to complete it asynchronously or respond to someone in my own time. This is another reinforcement that Coursera is an xMOOC. ExtensionEngine referred to the limited student-student interaction in their blog post and this is a good example of the isolating effect of the xMOOC (2019). 

Self-Directed Learning

Before resetting my deadlines I would have said that this is a great example of a self-directed learning resource. However, since resetting my deadlines and being unable to complete or move forward until a specific date, I am disappointed. The course is set up linearly and subsequent lessons are not released until the clock strikes the right hour on the right day. 

Recommendation

I'm happy I chose Coursera as it was a really interesting exploration of an xMOOC. I've been reading so much about the dynamics between learners, instructors, and material, and completing a class through Coursera definitely brought the dynamic into focus. I felt very isolated even though they had discussion boards. I felt like there was no way to reach out and ask the instructor questions. Additionally, anything I posted in the discussions and in the surveys felt like it disappeared into a giant void. I'm happy I chose to explore an xMOOC to see where, as a learner, I struggled. 

One thing Coursera did well was in their design. The application is beautiful and the app is really well designed. I did the majority of my learning on my iPad which worked perfectly! It was a very convenient way to learn.
In short, I would not recommend Coursera to a new distance/online learner. The lack of support from the instructor, the isolating effect of the discussion posts, and the linear release of lessons based on time are not selling points. Additionally, the lack of scaffolding and formative activities in the lessons is worrisome.

References:

Bates, T. (2014). Are you broadcasting or networking when teaching online [blog post]? Online Learning and Distance Education Resources. https://www.tonybates.ca/2014/12/15/are-you-broadcasting-or-networking-when-teaching-online/

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

Berklee College of Music. (n.d.b) Guitar for Beginners: Lesson Reflection [Quiz]. Coursera. https://www.coursera.org/learn/guitar/exam/SZTUT/lesson-reflection/attempt

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

ExtensionEngine. (2019) xMOOC vs cMOOC? Defining Common MOOC Terms [blog post]. Extension Engine Blog. https://blog.extensionengine.com/xmooc-vs-cmooc

Pappas, C. (2015). How to Apply Gagné's 9 Events of Instruction In eLearning. eLearning Industry. https://elearningindustry.com/how-to-apply-gagnes-9-events-of-instruction-in-elearning