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
6. FutureLearn
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.
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