I have been putting this off because it's going to be very negative.
I was seriously considering the Open University Creative Writing course and the FutureLearn course was advised as preparatory work. So I paid £100 and did the course.
I learned a few things and felt a bit more confident. But it's not really a proper course. The only assessment comes from other students and the general standard was abysmal. There is only one significant assignment near the end of the course. It's a single piece of writing, severely hampered by a very low word limit. But there is no assessment other than other students being able to comment.
I could have passed the course, with a nice Certificate of Completion, just by saying that I had done everything. But I submitted an assignment, modified from a tiny part of one of my novels.
Most of my comments come from assessments of this final assignment, and also from general chat coming from students along the way.
- Possible as many as hundreds of people started the course. Most seemed to drop pout after week 1
- Significant numbers either spoke in foreign languages or very poor English
- Over several months, only 24 submitted a final assignment
- Most of these couldn't write good English sentences. Probably half of them were not native English speakers. Others had no idea of paragraphs or creative writing
- I think only four produced an assignment with any potential. Everone else was wasting their time
- Only four continued as far as commenting on my assignment. Their main criticisms were about problems I had in cutting down the word count
When I say that my Creative Writing is better than the others, i am not claiming to be good. But most others on the course were much, much worse.
I am hoping for more professional feedback from A802
Alan