MOOCs

A MOOC, Massive open online course, is an online course aimed at open participation in it on the web. Basically, just an online course. You can read more about MOOCs here, here, and here. This page is going to host my brief reviews on various MOOCs I've completed. I first discovered MOOCs sometime around 2019, when people mentioned !1!!free harvard courses, it peaked my interest, but I would not go onto doing any until 2021. A majority of MOOCs I have taken have been through EdX.There are benefits to taking some of these online courses, as opposed to watching youtube videos or documentaries on these topics, as most manage to function how you'd expect any course to, while others you may have been better off watching a documentary, although that does not mean the information you're getting is not worth it, just might be simpler to sit on the couch and watching a documentary. A matter of preference. For example, the information divulged in the "China and Communism" course could easily be taught to you from a documentary, while "Masterpieces of World Literature" has it's strengths in a course with it's insights from the lecturers and the many sources you have to read for yourself. Both aformentioned courses are offered from HarvardX, yet differ in these ways. I hope to do more MOOCs in the future, as it is enjoyable for me. I will likely edit this page yearly, so I hope you are okay with the long wait for more recommendations and reviews.

MOOCs I have taken

The Science of Beer

• A fun course about the science of beer
• Learnt about creations of alcohols, fermenting, and all of that good stuff.
• The course shows you how to make your own beer, I did not try this, unfortunately
• First MOOC I did

Rating: recommended.
Basic Japanese Civil Law

• A course about japanese civil laws
• Why did I take this?
• Not very interesting or applicable to my life
• I remember the family law most vividly

Rating: not recommended, unless you really are interested in Japanese Civil law
Monozukuri: Making Things

• Learnt a bit about monozukuri
• Wish they elaborated a bit more on it
• Was really fun to hear some history

Rating: recommended, if you want to learn the philosophy of monozukuri
Masterpieces of World Literature

• The second MOOC I did
• A course on world literature, done by harvard
• Forced me to read a lot of things I wouldn’t have otherwise
• I did a lot of reading, constant reading.
• The course load is a lot for this, trying to read all of that in the time allotted was a lot, I will admit
• Very memorable lecture discussion, learnt something I’m sure
• My Name is Red is a good book

Rating: Highly recommended, if you have the time.
The Medieval Icelandic Sagas

• Chats about the Icelandic sagas and a history of Iceland and it’s culture
• As someone with little knowledge of the sagas going into it, I learnt a lot
• Enjoyable, the sagas are a bit wordy though.

Rating: Recommended
China and Communism

• Mao’s China, as told by Harvard
• A part of a program. I only did this course, but it did spark my interest in the other courses.
• Did not know much about Maoist China going into this, but now I feel more educated.
• Watched the course lectures while playing Animal Crossing City Folk, now I think about everything I learnt while playing Animal Crossing City Folk

Rating: Recommended, if you want to hear about maoist china.
Rethinking 'Us' & 'Them': Integration and Diversity in Europe

• Exploration of views on immigration in modern Europe
• I don’t live in Germany, so the perspectives from there are interesting

Rating: Not recommended. Don’t feel like I learnt too much.
Home