Value of MOOC? Cousera Edx, etc

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sk943821

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Hey! I'm taking a whole bunch MOOC's and for me personally they don't add anything too substantial to my cv/resume. But I was hoping to just get a discussion started on how people view/value MOOC. I mean you would think adding names like Harvard, Johns Hopkins, UMich Med, etc would look great regardless, but I know everyone has a different opinion. Thoughts?

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Completing a MOOC as an achievement will mean nothing until/unless they can fix the rampant cheating and identity fraud issues. Doesn't matter whose name is on the course.

As an enrichment for yourself, though, I love them. I'm planning to run through some during my break before med school (not pre-studying med school stuff...just interesting things I want to learn more about).
 
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Completing a MOOC as an achievement will mean nothing until/unless they can fix the rampant cheating and identity fraud issues. Doesn't matter whose name is on the course.

As an enrichment for yourself, though, I love them. I'm planning to run through some during my break before med school (not pre-studying med school stuff...just interesting things I want to learn more about).

Pretty much this. I'm going through two or three before med school just because there's stuff that looks interesting. I'm avoiding medicine/bio like the plague because I'll get enough of it starting in August. It's great for personal enrichment, not so much to pad your CV.
 
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Yep. I love MOOCs, but I second third the personal enrichment rather than professional/educational advancement aspect of them. I'm also taking some courses right now/will be taking more courses before August - though I kust can't resist some bio/medical ones :)
 
So which things have you guys taken, found interesting?

Currently taking one on constitutional law and legal thought/history in the Muslim world. Not really interested in a certificate of completion, so I just watch the videos and do the quizzes at my own pace. There's a short essay component as well, but I'm basically like "ain't nobody got time for that".
 
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I'm trying the Med Neuro from Duke from Cousera and a couple from Edx...i plan on putting them in my app and resume (though im not entirely sure where) bc i did put in effort in these courses and feel like it should be recognized
 
Holy crap, how have I never heard of this before?? This is such a great way to occupy some of my downtime at work! I just signed up for a class on dinosaurs (because apparently I'm 10 years old), a world history course, and I'm thinking of adding a class on cryptography. So freakin' cool!!
 
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So which things have you guys taken, found interesting?

Took one on cooking because I love good home made food and another on mental health due to personal interest in matter. Wish they had language courses! Would love to learn Mandarin Chinese.
 
I've skimmed through one on canine theriogenology, one about of epidemics, and have one saved as a review of A&P. Lots of fun ones available if I can remember to go in and watch the videos!
 
Took one on cooking because I love good home made food and another on mental health due to personal interest in matter. Wish they had language courses! Would love to learn Mandarin Chinese.

MIT open courseware has some languages I believe. I think iTunes U does as well.


And someone directed me to this site awhile back. http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/
 
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I'm trying the Med Neuro from Duke from Cousera
:thumbup: I have exactly zero background in neuroscience (even though I've been reading lots of popular books about, you know, the brain stuff), so I'm taking this course right now. I'm not really interested in getting a certificate, but I'm planning to do as much work as possible for the sake of my learning.
So which things have you guys taken, found interesting?
I have earned certificates for Human Physiology and Vaccine Trials on Coursera and Quantitative Methods in Clinical and Public Health Research on edX (the last two are relevant to my current job). I highly recommend the Quantitative Methods course for all interested in clinical research; Statistics in Medicine from Stanford online (https://class.stanford.edu/courses/Medicine/HRP258/Statistics_in_Medicine/info) is another great intro to medical statistics.

Other classes I've been watching, in no particular order:
AIDS from Coursera
Writing in the Sciences (a really good paper writing course; both on Coursera and Stanford online)
a whole bunch of statistics courses on Coursera and from Berkeley on edX (you can tell that I'm a statistics freak :D)
Justice with Prof. Sandel from Harvard on just about any online teaching platform - kind of a social philosophy/ethics and absolutely awesome, highly recommended!
Think Again - basically, logic, from Coursera
Know Thyself from Coursera - a mix of philosophy and psychology
Drugs and Brain on Coursera
Anatomy of the Upper Limb from Coursera (pre-learning Anatomy ;))
Health Policy and the Affordable Care Act from Emanuel, one of its architects, on Coursera + his courses on resource allocation in medicine and such
Neuroethics on Coursera
Western Music History on Coursera
global health and epidemic courses on Coursera (on and off)
Your Body in the World: Adapting to Your Next Big Adventure from Stanford online - physiological adaptations, just started
The Letters of Apostle Paul - just started on edX (I'm actually Jewish, but I'm interested in religions in general and Christianity in particular; plus - hey, Paul was a Jew!)
a bunch of mental health courses on Coursera (on and off)
a whole bunch of psychology, philosophy, history and economics courses here and there

Courses I'm looking forward to:
Moralities of Everyday Life on Coursera (Paul Bloom)
Practical Ethics with Peter Singer on Coursera (a preeminent modern ethical philosopher)
Buddhism and Modern Psychology on Coursera
Scandinavian Film and Television on Coursera - I'm not kidding! Have you seen the original Danish-Swedish "The Bridge"?
Fundamentals of Music Theory on Coursera
Basic Behavioral Neurology on Coursera
Intro to Clinical Neurology on Coursera (a nice follow up to the Medical Neuroscience I'm taking now)
Jazz Appreciation on edX
The Science of Everyday Thinking from edX

The class I started and regret not finishing, but hoping it'll be offered again:
Clinical Problem Solving from UCSF on Coursera - I believe this course is awesome for learning to think clinically (Dr. Lucey is one of the top clinical educators at UCSF); I downloaded the lectures, but I hope it's offered again, so I can actually do all the required homework and learn something

Wow, it's a long post. To finish, I'd like to add another resource: academicearth.org - these are recorded video lectures only, but some of them are pretty awesome - that's where I first saw Justice, and, speaking of anatomy pre-studying, there are human anatomy lectures (http://academicearth.org/courses/general-human-anatomy/) and dissections (http://academicearth.org/courses/human-anatomy-dissection/) - the dissection videos are kind of dated, but hey, human anatomy hasn't changed that much since 1970s :)
 
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I'm also interested in learning languages and in improving my Spanish in particular, so I appreciate language resources, too :)
 
MOOC Addicts Anonymous :)
 
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Bumping this but- Where are you putting MOOCs on your resume? I know the credits don't count, and the free certificates are kind of iffy but the Duke Neuroscience class gives you a grade and a certificate with distinction if you get an A, so I feel like listing on my resume that I did take a Neuroscience class would be great. Where would I put it though? And do you list the class you took it with/ and grade?
Thanks so much!
 
Hopkins has some online public health, epidemiology, biostats stuff that looks promising.

I guess it depends on what the resume is for and how you have it set up.
 
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