Learner Reviews & Feedback for Getting Started with Essay Writing by University of California, Irvine

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If you are looking to just take a class here or there, yes you can, but if you want the 5th course open to you you must complete the 4 courses before. Had I known this I would have started that way, instead I took 3 and tried to take 5, it does not work that way. If you are looking at cost, be sure to review the those options. While I didn't think I needed the other courses, I found it helpful to refresh my memory and it also helped understand the direction of the course material and assignments in detail. Even though it may look simple, always take notes during the lecture videos because by the time you get to the quizzes you might find your self stumped and the notes are great reminders on the outline principles of the subject. No, taking notes will not give you the answer, its not designed that way.

This course is alright. I like how the instructor's explanation (clear and precise) and her examples (very helpful)too. The only thing I am not really liking in MOOCs are those learners who keep plagiarizing. Cmon, there are instructions for each homework but I think I only reviewed one person who followed the instruction. Most of them submit a different topic from the 3 given topics and a lot just plagiarize. The first video of this course is about ACADEMIC INTEGRITY but some really don't care about it and it's unfortunate.

It is a good course in overall, it gave me an opportunity to practice writing and refresh some useful informations about how to write an argument. Minuses of the course: there is no indication of how long it might take for assignments to be graded, some of the students rush through their assignments so it is waste of time to review them instead of an opportunity to learn from others as it should be. Perhaps the non-granded assignments could be more though through to help the learning process?

I learnt a lot in this course that surprised me. I went from being terrified of essays to managing to write one a few pages long. Thank you. My biggest issue and why I didn't give it 5 stars if the grading is via peer review and this meant a long wait and lots of begging PLUS getting only one word reviews such as great. Not very helpful. I would like a person who is experienced in essay writing to do a review, but I do understand that, by sheer numbers of students, this would be non viable.

Easy to understand introduction to essay writing. In future versions of the course, would be advisable if people were trained in how to give constructive feedback and there were measures implemented to ensure that people provided feedback. Sometimes I received gibberish as feedback such as "erg" or "uyt."

Training in feedback could include a sample list of common types of errors that people make or ways to give positive feedback that is specific.

All the study materials are very nice, and the explanation videos are helpful. But I have a little suggestion. It would be better if this course lists some pre-requirements about what software we need to install or use before enrolling to this class. For example, essay assignments need to complete in Words document with specific format, and grades are based on formatting as well. However, I am using Macbook and do not have Microsoft Word.

Great course! Very hands-on and great videos and exercises. The problem lies in some of the people taking this course, who are not serious enough and tend to plagiarise and to provide you with limited and useless feedback. I also feel some of them do not even pay attention to the marking criteria. I think that an instructor should provide reviews on the essays, not other students.

The course wonderful and just suffer from some shortcomings. First, it assess by the peers, sometime people just say "great", "wonderful". It surely don't help students who come here to improve themselves. Next, sometimes it is take too much time for assessments. There is no forum or somewhere that you can discuss about the course. There in one to ask about your ambiguity.

I like this course; I learned a lot of new things to improve my writing skills. I recommend it to you completely. However, this course has 2 negative points that it could improve: 1) evaluation system of essays (I think that it is not very good because it doesn't evaluate the essay structure); and 2) I hate that all the exercises needed Mozilla.

Thank you for giving this opportunity. I would like to add some points regarding this course. It is better if there's a way to grade our assignments by the experts rather than by peers since most of us are non native speakers. and when grading assignments, it is better if the course can focus on the content of our essays. Thank you!

It is great course for beginners who wish to learn how to write the essay. This course will build your foundation and their idea of peer review and topic practice will help you to make this foundation solid. I have greatly effected with this course and now i am able to write a 5 paragraph essay in a well manner.

Thanks

All I wanted was to understand what a basic thesis question was, and what was considered an acceptable, basic, entry-level academic essay. I think this course delivered well enough. I only audited it, and I have thought since that I should have paid the money so I could have gotten more feedback on the assignments.

"Getting Started with Essay Writing" is an interesting and informative course. I found the video lectures to be easy to understand, and the exercises helpful. I learned a great deal about the format for building an essay, and about different types of essays, and how and when to use each kind. Highly recommend.

The course itself is exceptional. Instructor elaborates everything perfectly, but it takes really longer time to receive peer-reviews to pass the course. Also course doesn't have any forums where students can post that they need peer-reviews (which can be helpful to finish the course in timely manner).

It was a fun course, and throughout the course I learnt the fundamental basics of essay writing. Only thing that could be improved on is to put some example essays for students to read as an assignment, and go through it afterwards. Also to talk a little faster.

Getting Started with Essay Writing helps me improve my writing, and changes my point of view toward essays.

But we need a feedback on the assignment essays from the instructor or any specialist, the peers review is not enough.

Thank you!

Great course overall for people with average writing skills looking to improve, but the peer review just doesn't work. Others don't give you feedback, often don't even read your work and just give you an automatic 80% or 60%.

The course was great. The first time I wrote the essay it took me almost a day, but then it got easier and easier. Thank you for instructors and my classmates. I wish the peer review focused on the content of the essays too.

I think the course is very good, but the peer review grading should be improved! Sometime, people have to wait for more than 3 weeks to get their assignment graded, or they don't know whether they will get the grade. Thanks!

It's a good course for anyone who wants to start writing as it shows you the variety of methods. I personally gained a lot from the lectures. Likewise, the additional links and the assignments were very useful. Thank you!

I like this course a lot, Professor Tamy Chapman is very good, she explains everything in a way that makes it feel easy to understand. But I would like that the teacher was the one to review our homework submissions

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I have enjoyed the course from the start to the end, some of the self-taught videos were not operative. Other than that, I would recommend the course to whoever wishes to understand the fundamentals of essay writing.

It is a very good course. However, I must admit that is discouranging making the course because when you do the course free you do not have the opportunity to make all the excercises. Despite that, it is very good.