Meet MOOC
My personal path from shock to addiction while participating in the challenge course
When the email about my acceptance to the Bertelsmann — Udacity Technology Scholarship for Data Track arrived in November 2019, I had no clue what it would bring for me and how it would transform my life. I have not heard about the concept of MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) before, I have just wanted to learn something new that was appealing, and to be part of a challenge. Bertelsmann’s name was obviously the trigger and also the guarantee.
Shock
There was no time to think about the details, the start date of the Challenge course (Phase 1) was approaching and the date of orientation was set. With full determination and excitement I logged in to Zoom to participate in the virtual orientation webinar. This was the moment when I realized what MOOC means in reality. Despite the fact that I knew 15,000 scholars (out of 45,000 applicants) could start the challenge course in 3 different tracks (Cloud, AI and Data) I did not expect such a chaos. Yes, I know M stands for massive in the abbreviation but still, this volume was not expected by me. The professionals from Udacity did their best to keep the meeting on track; it was the fellow scholars’ eagerness to get more information that made it impossible to be effective and informative. This first experience turned out to be a shock (not only for me, but for others I have talked to afterwards). My head was full of questions: how will it work with the mass, what is it expected from us, is this an efficient way of learning? While I was flustered, I took a deep breath, and as a pragmatist, I started with the lessons hoping that everything will be settled soon.
Frustration and confusion
There were many factors for frustration at the beginning of the course; I would like to name only three of them:
1. Joining the community of 4,000–5,000 people from all over the world on Slack and experiencing the flood of posts and questions. Definitely overwhelming! Several questions popped up in my mind: which (study group) channel(s) should I join and follow? Do I need to check each channel each day? If so, how someone with full-time job and family obligations can achieve that? All were valid questions as one of the criteria to be selected for Phase 2 (that leads to the coveted Nanodegree in Data Analysis) is participation on Slack.
2. Getting vague information about the expectations and assessment methods. It was not disclosed how the individual contribution to the Slack community and participations in the channels would be evaluated (see point #1. selection criteria). The simple rule is: quality over quantity. This sounds reasonable and fair. Still the question remains: how should this work? I guess this was the most difficult part to understand. Simply because we are not brought up with such ‘grading system’. We are scored and assessed throughout our academic career from first grade of elementary school until finishing colleges/universities. Then it continues with KPIs and SMART goals that give the option for employers to evaluate the performance at work.
3. Having no mentors/tutors during Phase 1. This is perhaps the most unexpected component of this online program. How would this work? Thousands of people enrolled to the course; academic, professional and personal backgrounds vary. Some have knowledge in this field, some start from scratch, some are advanced.
Finding my way
Throughout the course all types of frustration were diminished by finding the right techniques to overcome the obstacles and concerns. What did exactly help me?
1. It turned out that Slack is actually pretty simple to use. Each channel has a purpose, and everyone can decide which ones are the best fit from a learning point of view. There are lesson-related channels and general channels for discussions, motivation or celebration that make sense to follow. After a few weeks, when everyone became busier and busier with learning, the intensity of threads normalized, the focus moved to the exchange of knowledge, the communication became more structured once most of the people learned to follow a few simple rules (like replying in threads, posting only in the right channels etc. and not spamming the system).
2. The recognition that many others have similar concerns and doubts helped to form a small community with solidarity. There were so many like-minded people in the group, who could cherish your day, could discuss things you are also interested in, could help when someone stuck or could just simply be there for you in need.
3. Remembering the initial answer to the question “Why did I start the course?” Most of us were looking forward to being selected and started the course with the wish to learn something new, to explore new skills and to get to know other interesting people.
4. New mindset: I let the idea go that this is a competition (unfortunately only 10% can make it to Phase 2) and our contribution will be assessed by unidentified measures. We had the choice to proceed with this study simply in a way that fit us the best individually.
5. Concentrating on the positive side of the challenge phase and enjoying the time being part of a worldwide community, taking the chance to make the most out of it and seizing the opportunity to ask for help and give support to others.
Getting the hang of it — alias it started to work
To my big surprise I started to experience after a few weeks that this concept is working, and it works effectively.
As for the learning side, everyone could take its own pace; the lessons are well explained and making fun. In case of questions there were plenty of peers to help regardless what time you ask them. Due to the global aspect of this scholarship, answers could flood in just a few minutes after questions are posted. Where do you get such 24/7 service? There is always ‘someone’ who is awake and can respond. The resources, articles, learning opportunities that are shared among each other are overhelming. It is impossible to keep up with the loads of information circulated within the community, but these are a good starting point to build a collection of reading materials for the near future.
I had to realize how revolutionary is to use internet for education. The result is amazing: knowledge becomes accessible and available for millions; it is an affordable and flexible way to learn new skills, advance your career and deliver quality educational experiences at scale.
In terms of the social side, I was blown away by the fact that something like that works in such a volume (as we are talking about thousands of students):
· Collaborating and supporting each other became a habit for most of us. I have never felt that someone would assist the other one because of getting a credit for contribution.
· Study groups were formed that reduced the number of participants to a few dozens of people that made the discussions and the teamwork more efficient. Explaining the lessons or solving quizzes prepared and shared by others were the best ways to test your knowledge.
· Beyond the individual goals (such as the completion of the course material before the deadline, which is one of the 3 criteria for the Phase 2 selection) team objectives got a focus through the “Hit the Goal” and “Battle of Tracks” challenges.
· It was interesting to see the different characters of the Belbin Team Roles such as the resource investigator, teamworker, coordinator, implementer and specialist.
· The continuous encouragements and motivation were overwhelming. People got connected in a truly and honest way, and started to rely on each other.
· This cooperation did not know boundaries, it stretched over countries and continents, disregarded time zones, and pulled together students with very diverse cultural and ethnical backgrounds.
What have I learnt during the period of 3.5 months?
This period of my life was a great investment to develop new hard skills, and to improve my existing soft skills at the same time. I have learnt a lot from the course, from the others and with the others. Just to mention a few:
· To switch from a quantitative to a qualitative mindset in terms of assessment;
· To practice perseverance;
· To understand that this is not a competition against others, but against myself, to prove that I can do this on a long run;
· To think and act globally (also adapt to IST / GMT / PST / WAT etc.);
· To push my limits as far as possible;
· To realize how much the power of trust and confidence in people can be the wind beneath their wings;
· To be inspired and motivated by others from all around the world, and spread this support within the community as much as I could;
· To believe again in the strength of TEAM: Together Everyone Achieves More;
· To deepen my knowledge in statistics;
· To code in Python and SQL at a basic level;
· To work comfortably with Google Drive, Google Hangouts, Zoom and Discord;
· To unleash creativity to come up with ideas and visualize them with the help of Canva (I have prepared a flyer, an infographic and a mind map during this time, though I did not have any former experience with this tool);
· It is never late to learn something new and continuous learning keeps the balance of mind and heart.
What I did not expect to do but I am glad, I have done?
At the beginning my main goals were to make a solid habit of learning and to finish the course earlier than the deadline, so I could practice coding. I needed to squeeze these tasks into my busy daily routine. The only chance was to pick the lessons up in the evenings (after my full-time work) and during weekends. Therefore I did not dare to sign up for any additional tasks (such as the #60daysofudacity challenge or applying for a student leader role) during the first 1–1.5 months.
After a while, I realized that things were moving to the right direction and I was on track with studying. This was the time when the student leaders of one of the Slack channels decided to launch the “Resume Evaluation Event”. This meant that anyone in the community could post its resume and others could make comments and suggestions. People liked it and found it very useful, I felt this task suits me very well as an experienced interviewer. This is how I started to review resumes/CVs and providing suggestions to make them better. I even got direct requests to check certain CVs, which was really appealing. My comments were received well, and that made me think further. This triggered an idea (which I just dreamed of): to organize a career AMA (Ask Me Anything) session! This was a niche, as Udacity offers career services only in Phase 2. This was missing in this phase, though it was clear that 90% of the students would not be able to make it to the next phase. Many of the peers are actually under/postgraduate students, finishing universities soon, but without any experience how to apply to a job and how to prepare for an interview. Luckily my idea was supported by the Udacity community managers so I could start to plan it. I needed a buddy to make this session happen as it is much better to do something like that in pair. I was lucky to get Simer on board, who also has experience in recruiting & interviewing just like me, with the additional knowledge in the tech field. We made 6 * 1-hour session during one of the weekends; received very genuine questions, had really fruitful discussions, some turned to be a 1:1 career coaching (even sometimes like a life coaching). Thanks to our peer, Manish from India, we managed to answer country specific questions as well. It was definitely a great fun for us, we also learnt from it, and according to the positive feedbacks, it was very useful to the respective students.
The other opportunity for me to contribute to the community came with the study jam. It is a virtual event where all students come together for a specified period of time (it runs 24 hours) to work through their coursework, do quizzes, have webinars and discussion panels. Continuous technical support is provided by student volunteers. As extra hands were needed, I volunteered. This is how I became a ‘honorary student leader’ and part of the organizing team of 2 study jams. Through the brainstorming calls and close collaboration we (with Marion, Cindy and Nishant) ‘glued’ together. It was an amazing teamwork and a fantastic experience for me.
Addiction
By this point, I am sure, dear reader, you could get the feeling why this path led me to addiction and affection to this learning program. The strong connection of the ‘core’ members of the community, the supportive and cherishing environment, all the challenges, events, opportunities and the learning material played a big role in this result. Learning every day seemed to me unachievable due to other obligations, but turned out to be an easily accomplished habit at the end.
Being socially connected with so many talented and (emotionally) intelligent people in this network has a great impact on each of us. I am grateful that this program allowed me to virtually meet people such as Marion, Vesna, Anita, Zsolt, Attilio and Jonathan, who were there when I needed to have advices; with them I could also discuss life related questions.
The following mind map summarizes what this journey meant to me.
Takeaways — How to move on?
There are still some days left until the deadline of March 5, 2020. Our 2nd Study Jam (the 24-hour global learning session) is still ahead of us as a last chance for a big ‘gathering’. It is still unbelievable how quick these months went and what progress I could achieve.
Whatever the outcome will be, the learning process does not stop for me here. I am packed with website links and articles to read for the next couple of months, with the clear direction what else, how and where I can continue to learn. My folder for motivation is full with quotes, sayings and inspiring images thanks to my peers.
I will not stop on the human side either: the first visit by a peer is scheduled for mid-March, and hopefully many other meetups are to follow from all over the world.
This blog cannot be completed without the Special thanks section to mention my personal Top 25 who inspired, motivated and supported me throughout this course:
@vvidmar @m.pastre @anitagoldpergel @cindy @pree @doyin @ayowole @andreavillanca@marinapastore@marinaatlija@yang@theresebourguignon@datagirl@palak@nishant@carloshidalgo@jens@jonathanpapworth@birozso@attilio@simer@gaston@mustafamhasan@manishkumar@clayton
Without you guys this course would have been much less fun and less thoughtfully.
“I do not know what comes next, in a world that has decided that it’s going to lose its mind, Be more kind my friends; try to be more kind [….] How this ends, no one knows. So hold on tight when the wind blows.” — Frank Turner
