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Harvard Extension quality of classes question
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(09-05-2020, 12:46 PM)rpmranger Wrote: Have any of you attended graduate level courses at Harvard extension online? Which program? 

How interactive is it, and how well done are they? I have taken many online courses at several different Universities over the years, and I have not been very happy with most of them. For in person lectures, I've had some amazing professors where you interact in the discussion, can ask questions on the spot, and you really learn a lot. I still remember lectures from 20 years ago. Comparatively, most online courses I've taken have been terrible, and I could just as easily read something on my own without even taking the course. 

For example, at TESU I just basically get a list of assignments in an unorganized and messy format, you read what you are told, turn in an assignment, then take a quiz or test. The graded discussion forum assignments attempting to make things interactive are just busy work with forced replies to forced comments. I get no lecture and no teaching. Personally, I get absolutely nothing out of this type of course. It checks a box that says complete, I forget it in a few weeks, and that's it. 

For grad school, I do not want to just check a box, especially at an expensive school, I expect more. Are any classes live via zoom? Recorded lectures? Q and A sessions? What are they like? I would hope for a school like this they are very well done, but I have no idea if it's just more of the same read and do type of experience. Wherever I attend, I am pretty much forced to be online. I can do a short residency period, but full time in person is not realistic for my family situation. So what I am looking for is something online, yet immersive, interactive and worth the expense.
I have done several towards the creative writing and literature program. The pro seminar and creative writing focused courses were all very intensive with scheduled 2 hour zoom meetings every week plus additional personally scheduled one on one meetings with the professor 3 times a term  and some additional group sessions if necessary. Those classes also had weekly reflective exercises in addition to your required writing samples, which had deadlines that varied per student for workshop purposes. I tried to do the Poetry for America courses for literature credit, but did not like either of the 2 I signed up for....those had minimal required sessions, but a lot of the assignments were just not enjoyable. I took the Philosophy of Superheroes for credit for one of my literature requirements and loved it.  Most of the material for it is available free through coursera, but the for credit version includes a weekly 1 hour discussion session with a graduate assistant lead and 3 other sessions with the actual professor that are optional, but less discussion and you submit your questions beforehand....the lectures are the same prerecorded ones on coursera. All of the writing assignments for the course get turned in once as a draft and then as a final paper incorporating feedback from the draft. It includes both analysis of stories (in this course, it's analysis of movies, tv shows, and radioplays) and creative writing with assigned parameters (you have to create a superhero with powers you are assigned the first week and then compose an origin story and then later a story incorporating philosophical concepts or dilemma that were discussed). The course has both undergraduate and graduate students, with more criteria for graduate writing assignments. The discussions in my group were amazing and it's probably my favorite course I've ever taken....and I'm not really a person into superhero or that whole genre. Honestly,  if every class I took was like this one, I would have finished school a long time ago.
And I also want to stress how strict all of the HE courses are with deadlines. Unless you get approval beforehand or have a verifiable emergency,  you likely will get zero credit for anything not turned in on time. And the courses that had draft assignments would not allow submission of the final paper if there was no draft grade.
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RE: Harvard Extension quality of classes question - by Sparklette - 09-05-2020, 07:05 PM

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