While you might think a course about sheep-farming in Iceland would have a small audience, the concepts examined are applicable to almost anywhere in the world. A surprisingly wide range of material is covered in such subject areas as history, ecology, geology, farming practices, government policies, and sustainability.
As mentioned in the very first video, sheep are farmed all over the world and are a major source of food, clothing and income for many people.
This quaint course is somewhat different from most edX courses. For one thing, it’s marketed as only 3 weeks long, with a recommended time commitment of 1-2 hours per week. Often, edX courses are longer and with a heavier workload.
One of 2019’s Best Courses
I discovered it in Class Central’s Best Courses of 2019 list, published on January 26th 2020.
Although three weeks is mentioned, I was rather confused when I opened the course and discovered it is divided into 5 sections. Closer scrutiny, however, revealed that two of those sections are an introduction and a conclusion. The actual course material is found in sections 2, 3, and 4. Each section was divided into 2 or 3 topics.
I needed a short break from concentrating on writing, so I took the course and finished it within a few days.
Knowledge Checkpoints
I really liked the frequent knowledge checkpoints, with unlimited attempts at the answers. With the trend for assessments to be behind a paywall, this was a welcome feature. Many questions required several answers to be selected, not just a single multiple-choice answer.
Most pages had a discussion at the bottom, where you can create your own thread, or reply to existing threads. I was delighted to see the presenter, Isabel Barrio, frequently responding to questions and comments.
The course ended with a quiz that I originally expected to be locked if I didn’t pay for the certificate, but, happily, it was not. Although the final quiz allowed only one attempt at each question, the pass mark was 60%. After having worked through the course readings, videos, and knowledge checkpoints within the last few days, I easily passed the quiz.
The format of the course was generally some reading, a video, a few questions, then onto the next topic. Most videos were around 5 or 6 minutes long, although there were a few under 4 minutes and the longest was about 9 minutes. Similar to FutureLearn, there is no way to see how long each video is until you actually start viewing it.
A range of specialist speakers appeared in the videos, presenting different aspects of the course. David Hik, one of the presenters of the Mountains 101 course that I enjoyed a few years ago, appeared in an early video.
Comprehensive course notes and a glossary were available for download if desired.
A Final Thought
It sounded quirky enough to be interesting and I’m glad I
took this short course!
By Pat Bowden, published February 11, 2020.
