Coursera helped me to fulfil my dream of studying psychology

Oksana Koltun, an associate professor at the Department of Geomorphology and Paleogeography at the Faculty of Geography of Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, started studying on the Coursera platform last summer. Since then, she has received 12 certificates. The platform offers a limited number of courses in geomorphology and palaeo-geography, but this did not stop Oksana from fulfilling her studenthood dream of studying psychology. The associate professor has already received eight certificates in this field. What advantages and disadvantages of the platform Olena notes, and how she applies the courses in practice, read in this text. 

What courses have you taken and how have you applied them in your life? 

I found out about the Coursera platform in May-June last year and joined it at the same time because there was a free training programme for Ukrainian teachers and students. However, I did not find any courses in my speciality. In general, the natural sciences are less common, and therefore they are less often considered or courses are developed for them. On the platform, however, one chapter in the course on the ecosystem of California was devoted to geomorphology, and in palaeo-geography, there was one week-long lecture on dinosaurs.

Have you taken any courses that are not related to your speciality? Which ones?

Yes, I use the platform for personal development, namely, I study areas of interest to me. In particular, Coursera helped me to realise my dream of studying psychology since my student years. Teaching is impossible without mastering psychology, so I am able to apply the knowledge from the courses in practice. Today I have certificates in 12 courses, eight of which are in psychology. These are a full specialisation in positive psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, which consists of five courses, an introduction to psychology from Yale University, and First Aid from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, as well as Emotion Management in Times of Crisis. Another interesting course is "Motivating Generation Z". It is designed mainly for teachers and parents and teaches them to better understand young people born at the turn of the millennium. 

Do you have any experience of peer reviewing assignments on Coursera and do you find this approach effective?

First of all, I don't always like the fact that it takes a long time to get feedback. However, if I were being assessed by professionals, I would be willing to wait. And here are people like me. Personally, I tried to evaluate other people's work honestly: I re-read everything, analysed it, gave it an objective score, and wrote advice. I still like it better when you just have to pass a test, although this is 100% impossible in psychology courses.

Did you find comments and ratings from other users useful or interesting? 

Yes, I've seen a lot of insightful comments. People shared their experiences, which was especially useful for courses on healthy lifestyles. However, I was often unable to open the comments, which may be a glitch in the Coursera mobile app. I would get a notification that another user had rated my assignment, but I couldn't open it. 

Does the Coursera platform need to work on motivation for taking courses? Or is this a matter for each individual? 

As a scientist, I often analyse various studies and once I found one about distance learning. I became interested in this because I observed a catastrophic drop in student learning due to the quarantine, and later - to the full-scale war. And I think we have to accept the fact that we have become less effective as a result of distance learning. According to the study, only 10% of users complete the courses because the rest lose interest. On the other hand, I don't complete all the courses myself, because some of them either don't appeal to me or take a lot of time to complete. 

What are the positive and negative aspects of the platform?

Advantages:

• You have the opportunity to see how teachers from the best universities in the world teach. 
• Everyone gets a free opportunity to realise their favourite direction, hobby or dream thanks to Coursera.
• The platform provides a tremendous opportunity for self-improvement and even improving your standard of living.  
• On Coursera, you can change the timing of your studies at any time, which helps you monitor your progress and create your own schedule that won't interfere with other areas of your life.
• A very large palette of features: videos can be saved on different devices and viewed offline, there are text subtitles in both Ukrainian and English with the ability to copy and translate.

Disadvantages:

• Technical shortcomings of the platform's mobile application.

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