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Also affecting Coursera: https://twitter.com/coursera https://twitter.com/coursera It's rather annoying as the first assignments for the Alex Aiken's excellent

by twp 14y ago

Also affecting Coursera: https://twitter.com/coursera https://twitter.com/coursera It's rather annoying as the first assignments for the Alex Aiken's excellent Compilers course are due today.

tocomment 14y ago
Sorry to hear that. Maybe you can get an extension.
- amalag 14y ago
  Yes they will usually extend it, like they did with the Godaddy outage.
  - twp 14y ago
    Thanks - I've already emailed the lecturer. For info, Coursera seems to randomize the assignments. Specifically, in the case of multiple choice tests it seems to pick a random subset of answers to each question, and randomize the order. This is obviously a defense against dumb copying. What it does mean though is that you can't resubmit your own work. I've re-done the assignment twice this evening (the questions change enough that you have to think a lot, even when re-doing the same assignment), only to get 500 errors both times. Anyhow, I'm sure it'll all work out and these temporary technical problems are but minor hiccups in what is a fantastic course and a fantastic learning system. It's very, very much appreciated.
    - chimeracoder 14y ago
      > I've re-done the assignment twice this evening (the questions change enough that you have to think a lot, even when re-doing the same assignment), only to get 500 errors both times. It's been about 8 years, so my memory may wrong, but I believe WebAssign used do have some sort of adaptive homework, where the questions would be selected based on your answers to previous questions (the same way the GMAT or GRE works). I'm surprised that Coursera doesn't do something of the sort, both to avoid the problem that you're having (the 'state' of your homework would be updated each time you submit an answer to a question), and also to capitalize on some of the flexibility of digital learning that isn't possible on paper.
    - rz2k 14y ago
      The choices can change between each time you initiate a quiz. However, if you complete part of a quiz, save, then return later, the choices will be the same, but the order will be different. Not all of the courses are set up with multiple choices though. In addition to varying sets of correct responses, some answers are mathematical. For instance it is defined such that a question might ask ("What is %d plus %d", a, b), then have choices involving the quantities: ("%d", a+1), ("%d", a*b), ("%d", a+b), etc. with a different random quantity for a and b each time you start a quiz. Interestingly, I saw one course where it had single-choice questions, with more differences than simply right or wrong. For instance one answer gave 100%, another 80%, and another 0% of the points available for that question.
dopamean 14y ago
I'm super excited for a course I am enrolled in that starts today and cant log in. Lame.

by twp 14y ago

Also affecting Coursera: https://twitter.com/coursera https://twitter.com/coursera It's rather annoying as the first assignments for the Alex Aiken's excellent Compilers course are due today.

tocomment 14y ago

Sorry to hear that. Maybe you can get an extension.

amalag 14y ago
Yes they will usually extend it, like they did with the Godaddy outage.
- twp 14y ago
  Thanks - I've already emailed the lecturer. For info, Coursera seems to randomize the assignments. Specifically, in the case of multiple choice tests it seems to pick a random subset of answers to each question, and randomize the order. This is obviously a defense against dumb copying. What it does mean though is that you can't resubmit your own work. I've re-done the assignment twice this evening (the questions change enough that you have to think a lot, even when re-doing the same assignment), only to get 500 errors both times. Anyhow, I'm sure it'll all work out and these temporary technical problems are but minor hiccups in what is a fantastic course and a fantastic learning system. It's very, very much appreciated.
  - chimeracoder 14y ago
    > I've re-done the assignment twice this evening (the questions change enough that you have to think a lot, even when re-doing the same assignment), only to get 500 errors both times. It's been about 8 years, so my memory may wrong, but I believe WebAssign used do have some sort of adaptive homework, where the questions would be selected based on your answers to previous questions (the same way the GMAT or GRE works). I'm surprised that Coursera doesn't do something of the sort, both to avoid the problem that you're having (the 'state' of your homework would be updated each time you submit an answer to a question), and also to capitalize on some of the flexibility of digital learning that isn't possible on paper.
  - rz2k 14y ago
    The choices can change between each time you initiate a quiz. However, if you complete part of a quiz, save, then return later, the choices will be the same, but the order will be different. Not all of the courses are set up with multiple choices though. In addition to varying sets of correct responses, some answers are mathematical. For instance it is defined such that a question might ask ("What is %d plus %d", a, b), then have choices involving the quantities: ("%d", a+1), ("%d", a*b), ("%d", a+b), etc. with a different random quantity for a and b each time you start a quiz. Interestingly, I saw one course where it had single-choice questions, with more differences than simply right or wrong. For instance one answer gave 100%, another 80%, and another 0% of the points available for that question.

dopamean 14y ago

I'm super excited for a course I am enrolled in that starts today and cant log in. Lame.