Welcome to this briefing for Beauty, Form and Function, an Exploration of Symmetry.
I want to take a few minutes to introduce you to the concept and philosophy of this
course, and also help you to understand what we expect students to complete.
This course is quite different to most of the Coursera MOOCs which are available.
And it's different because it carries real university academic units.
Because of that, we have to run the course in perhaps a bit more formal sense
than you are used to with other Coursera courses that you might have undertaken.
This really is a course which is a real course.
Here we have the complete notes for this course.
This is not a watered down university course.
It is a real undergraduate course at NTU.
Because of that, we have divided the course into two parts.
We have track 1, which consists of parts I and II of the course.
The material in this part of the course tends to be a little more basic and
easier, and so it's appropriate for anyone who has a general interest in symmetry.
Track 2 of the course takes in parts I, II, III and IV of the course.
Because this course is directed towards gaining real academic units,
we have divided it into two tracks.
The easier, track 1 involves only parts I and II
of the course, and lasts five weeks.
Track 1 is appropriate for anyone with a general interest in symmetry,
providing they have some background in mathematics.
For track 1, there are five parts to the assessment.
Two multiple choice question sets, two peer-graded assignments and
also one learning log.
The harder, track 2, takes in all parts of the course and
takes eight weeks to complete.
In this case, there are four multiple choice question sets,
three peer-graded assignments and two learning logs.
If you complete track 1 and obtain a pass mark of more than 60%, taken
across all the assignments, then you will obtain your statement of accomplishment.
If you complete track 2, again with a pass mark of greater than 60%,
then you can obtain a statement of accomplishment with distinction.
For track 2, if you also enroll as a verified certificate student,
you will obtain three academic units.
For NTU students and prospective NTU students, the details of how to use these
academic units are provided in the FAQs on the landing page of this course.
For both track 1 and track 2 students, you should expect your statements of
accomplishment about one month after the course ends.
Let's look in some more detail how the assignments will be graded.
For the multiple choice question sets, you can have three attempts and
the highest mark will be taken towards your grade.
For field exercise one and field exercise two,
you're expected to go out and photograph objects in your environment and
then analyze the symmetry associated with these.
Parts III and IV involve a writing exercise and
this will be a guided critique of a scientific paper.
You will also need to complete learning logs as an aid to
self-reflection on your progress through the course.
The course contains a number of tools to help you study.
Most of the lecture videos contain in video quizzes.
And these questions are to help you determine if you
have understood the material properly.
However, they are not graded.
For each part, model multiple choice questions sets and
detailed answers are provided.
You should study these carefully before you start to use up
your valuable three attempts on the graded MCQ questions.
The peer-to-peer assignments are to
help you establish your understanding in greater depth.
And to assist you, we have student focus group recordings.
These recordings will show you how undergraduates at NTU
tackle these assignments.
Finally, there are learning logs.
And these logs are designed to help you think about what you've learned and
share what you have learned with fellow students.
For the peer-graded assignments, five students will examine and
mark every piece of homework.
This should avoid excursions to very high or
very low marks, and give you an overall score,
which is representative of the quality of the homework you have submitted.
Just like a real university course, there are a range of
materials which you have to download and study to complete this work properly.
For part I, the first and most important thing to download is the course timetable.
You should take this and print it out and study it
carefully to make sure that you meet all of the deadlines for your homework.
Please be reminded that we can't entertain late submission of any homework.
You should also download the lecture and
tutorial schedule, so you don't miss any important material.
You should also download the template for the personal learning log one.
In the first week, I would simply study this template and begin to fill it in
during week two when you have a sense of the material in the course.
You should also download the template and model answers for field exercise one.
You should also download the lecture notes either as PDF or PowerPoint files.
Please remember that you must have a computer which is
loaded with Microsoft Office or Open Office for this course.
There's also a subtitles text file.
All of the lectures have English subtitles and
if you wish, you can download this file separately.
Finally, if you have a slower internet connection and
you can't view the streaming video, you can download them.
If you do that, you will also need to download the subtitles should you
need them and also in-video Q and As.
Please also remember that as a course granting academic units,
you have to adhere to the normal student responsibilities.
Naturally, you have to hand your homework in on time.
And for this, we are always using Singapore time.
We provide a clock near the top of the navigation menu.
That way, you can check the time difference for your locality.
I would strongly recommend that you do this.
I would strongly suggest you don't leave doing your homework until the last minute,
especially your multiple choice questions.
For the peer-to-peer assignments, I would be even more cautious and allow one
to two days to get your homework uploaded in case there is an internet failure.
Of course, plagiarism cannot be condoned in this course.
So if the plagiarism, either of images or of text, are detected by students or
the course manager, then you automatically score zero for that particular assignment.
Finally, if you are sharing your computer with other students,
make sure you log out before you let another student use the computer.
Otherwise, you run the risk of your homework and
your grades being overwritten by another student's work.
Once lost, your work cannot be restored.
For part I, you have two hard deadlines.
First, you must submit field exercise one.
And secondly, you have to complete multiple choice question set one.
I would strongly recommend that before you submit field exercise one,
you view the tutorial focus group so you can see what is expected.
Here are some hints and tips for this course.
All of the lectures are available immediately.
You should study at your own pace, but
my suggestion is that you study in two week blocks.
In other words, the duration of each part.
It will probably be very useful for you to examine the practice multiple
choice question sets straightaway and then view the lectures.
In this way,
you know what the major messages of the lectures are supposed to be.
And through the course, try to keep up with your learning log.
The course has a fairly equitable gender distribution, as you can see,
with a high percentage of students being in the 20 to 40 age group.
But you will also note that there are some students who perhaps are at
high school and also quite a number of retirees undertaking this course.
There is a quite a wide distribution of educational levels for this course.
While most students have a bachelors or masters degree already, many do not.
And I think, especially for track 1 students, you should be very mindful of
this wide range of backgrounds and capabilities, and also, language skills.
So when you are marking the peer-to-peer homework,
please be generous to your fellow students.
Don't look explicitly at, for example, grammar.
Simply look and see if the students have understood the content of the course and
that that is reflected in the homework that they submit.
I hope the information provided in this briefing session helps you
to navigate this course smoothly.
Please enjoy this course and
don't hesitate to contact us should you have any concerns or queries.
Best of luck and I hope you all get your certificates of accomplishment.