No fault of the instructor, it’s more that I don’t have the patience for fiddly things, and tend to wing it!

For everyone else sharing any feedback on courses, do feel free to post the link of the course that you did, and also to let us know honestly what you liked and didn’t like regarding the teaching style, schedule, etc.

These are two courses that I’ve audited on edX, but they don’t fall in the typical “fun” category. I enjoyed them tremendously though!

Harvard’s CS50 — beginner computer science course, the lecturer is superb at making classes come alive: https://www.edx.org/cs50

I used this to prep for my business analytics specialist dip, and be less afraid of numbers. I found this very reassuring! https://www.edx.org/learn/statistics/university-of-notre-dame-i-heart-stats-learning-to-love-statistics

@sharonkhoo Could you share the link for this course? Yes I would’ve been much more informed in many areas, if we had gotten access to all of this in our schooldays!

It’s included in the annual subscription to EdX which I used my expiring SF credits on last year.

I just checked, and it seems you can audit the course free but you won’t get a certificate or completion (if that matters to you!). You can pay for individual courses if you want to get a certificate. I have never tried it this way, but here’s the link:
https://www.edx.org/learn/art/universidad-carlos-iii-de-madrid-european-paintings-from-leonardo-to-rembrandt-to-goya?index=rv_product_summary&queryId=caec8aa9f24c397ded3b17d435d97917&position=1

https://www.basedbookarts.com/workshops

Will update once we’ve done it!

Am going with some gfs, as a birthday treat to one of them. In recent years, we’ve taken to gifting experiences as presents, especially for the types who already seem to have everything they need!

Who’s conducting the bookbinding course? I tried a half-day bookbinding course run by Society of the Physically Disabled as part of the Singapore Writers Festival a couple of years ago - it was quite fun, but I haven’t tried it again. We made a small notebook with cloth-covered hardcovers. Let me know how you find your course.

Do you power through courses by watching several lectures/episodes at one go? I find that I get sleepy — the Netflix duration of 45mins is about all I can take in one sitting!

I too have some free time now that I’m on a school break till April! I’ve arranged with friends to take a bookbinding class in March — we used Culture Pass, not SkillsFuture!

https://www.basedbookarts.com/workshops

Am quite busy these few weeks, but will try to do another one once I have a few free days. I wonder what to do next?

I’m in the process of writing my 3rd coursework essay, and once that’s handed in, it’s term break!

What I like about the Republic Poly specialist diploma courses: solo projects and no tests/exams.

For the current course that I’m taking, they’ve also built in gradable review components; i.e. a midpoint check-in + post-submission q&a, partly to give you chances to score, and also to check that you know your submission well (a safeguard against AI copying).

I’ve done both a STEM course and a social sciences course at Republic Poly, and social sciences is definitely less stressful (for me), and easier to juggle with full-time work and other commitments.

As for my husband, he completed his photography/videography course, which was held over two weekends. It’s ultimately a Leica-endorsed workshop, so you get to go to a Leica store and use Leica cameras (we already own one). He had to film a video as part of the course, and practise his street photography skills along a market. There was even an open-book exam, and he got a certificate at the end of it

https://hustle.com.sg/courses/leica-photography-course/

It’s not just the SkillsFuture site that puts people off.

Until very recently, participants in all SkillsFuture classes had to spend 10-20 mins every lesson just to scan attendance, because only one person could scan the QR code at a time. I experienced this at specialist diploma classes as well as for short-term courses — everyone fights to scan the code and it feels like a lottery win when you finally get your attendance marked! I don’t have the skill of fastest fingers, sadly!

It’s only been improved to allow multiple scans this year

But one thing is that the SkillsFuture site is super messy and hard to browse!

I agree! They should some librarians from NLB to help improve the search features. I found (being a librarian) that IT people like to think the full text searching of an unstructured database is always better than using controlled index terms to search a well-indexed database. They loved to tell me, “see, you get 1000 hits!” (mostly irrelevant) as if that would be more useful to a searcher than 30 relevant hits.

But one thing is that the SkillsFuture site is super messy and hard to browse!

I took Eng Lit at NUS. I had dropped lit in sec school (laziness) and was a triple-science kid, but it was not a good fit for me, and the MA was to “make up” for that period.

I actually had a really good experience at NUS; I did modules like “Women & Mythology” and authors that we had to read included Charlotte Bronte (Jane Eyre) and Louise Erdrich (The Antelope Wife). But I struggled for the renaissance lit module hahahaha (Paradise Lost… shudder!).

I like what you said about going with your interests! My aim is to read more books this year, especially the ones lying around at home untouched.

@sharonkhoo Wow you’ve read the Odyssey!!! What are some tips that you have for reading (and appreciating) the classics? I find it hard to want to reach for those. I have Moby Dick unfinished, on my list.

I don’t have any tips! As an adult, I find that my time is too precious to read things that don’t interest me, or if I don’t appreciate the style of writing. (That’s part of the reason why I refused an offer to study Eng Lit at university level!) But I am curious enough to want to know about things that are not immediately in my sphere, including something about what others consider “great literature”. If I feel that the book has made great contributions in some way, or is very famous for some reason, I might look up the wiki summaries!

When I was still in sec school/JC and had more time on my hands, I made an effort to read some of the recommended books that I kept hearing about, including the Odyssey (in translation, of course!). But they were mostly novels of later periods (18th century onwards) and random things I came across in libraries. When I was younger, I was more prepared to be impressed by what others considered “great” even if I didn’t really like the style!

Now, I read mostly fiction in the mystery genre (NLB reports that I read over 200 such books in Jan-Nov last year!). So this course is really my lazy way of finding out more about these “important” texts, some of which I have never even heard of before.

Thanks for sharing the list

I read Salman Rushdie’s Knife, after I heard him on an NYT podcast. I’ve never read Satanic Verses. Knife was a good read — it included an imaginary conversation with his attacker, and he also addressed a question that’s been put to him many times during his recovery, “do you believe in God now?” I won’t spoil it, but I was struck by his answer!

@sharonkhoo Oh nice!!! What are some of the books that you have to read?

NLB has this series called A Bridge to the Classics:
https://www.facebook.com/watch/100069047889702/948198266803290/

I think this month, they’ll be talking about Dostoevsky (can never spell his name without checking!)

Confession: I’m lazy! I don’t read the actual books! Maybe the Wikipedia summaries… I’m using the course as a shortcut - just to get an idea of the books as I don’t think I’ll ever get round to reading them! The only one in the list that I’ve read is the Odyssey (about 40+ years ago!). I have heard of some of the others, but most are completely new to me.

Texts/authors considered in the course:

Section 1:Goethe and the Birth of World Literature
Section 2: The Epic of Gilgamesh
Section 3: Homer, The Odyssey
Section 4: The 1001 Nights
Section 5: Murasaki Shikibu, The Tale of Genji
Section 6: The Lusiads
Section 7: Voltaire, Candide
Section 8:Lu Xun and Eileen Chang
Section 9: Jorge Luis Borges, Ficciones
Section 10:Wole Soyinka, Death and the King’s Horseman
Section 11:Salman Rushdie and Jhumpa Lahiri
Section 12: Orhan Pamuk, My Name is Red

I’m sad. No follow up on my “successful registration of interest” for the dog grooming course. I guess I have to smell her Fritos toes for eternity.

NLB has this series called A Bridge to the Classics:
https://www.facebook.com/watch/100069047889702/948198266803290/

I think this month, they’ll be talking about Dostoevsky (can never spell his name without checking!)

Popping in to share that I just finished my first paper for my current course (a specialist diploma in career counselling).

We had to do APA-style referencing — not something we’d like to relive, that’s for sure. But thankfully there’s AI to the rescue these days!

It’s quite a brain workout to read academic papers again, I must say. In my previous specialist diploma, I did business analytics, which was more about using tools and setting up a workstream to analyse big data — we didn’t have to care so much about how we phrased things, and there was hardly any need to reference.

I’m doing the reverse - in that I’m having to “retrain” myself to craft carousels to post on IG! My usual style is not so suited for that (as those who’ve read a lot of posts here will know). I’m using AI (Copilot) to edit my drafts to make them more contemporary in style!

I’m fine with preparing bibliographies (any style) - I used to be a librarian!