The structure was good and useful, but I expected richer content. I would prefer if there wasn't a peer-reviewed homework or that there was reassurance of timely peer review.
Only because my money was invested in this course i stayed.
Introductory indeed, thanks to this course I knew where to start with my Chinese Language acquisition. The sentences given can be used in the real world. But there was a lot to be desired.....
I don't live in a place where I can get much practice face to face and so feel that there should have been more in depth lessons to help what I was learning to stick.
For example, more cultural backgrounds, how one word or phrase could differ in different places, a number of realistic conversations in regular speed not just one scenario using students of the language like myself (I would've been more accepting if the demonstrators weren't so unnatural). There was a lot of things that detracted from the videos.
At times the accent of the instructors from the lesson videos took away from the message, though i wasn't distracted, I wasn't totally present either It took much effort to stay focused. Delivery is important for such a complicated subject.
The App was convenient, I could download the video lessons, and do some of the tests then have them submitted when I had internet access again. But there were some bugs, especially on the new vocabulary page.
The PDF lesson sheets had valuable information in them, I just wish there was a way to have been tested more on those. It was like pouring information into my lap and asking me to learn, and correct myself. I've learned that can hurt language acquisition.
Lastly, the community in my opinion is almost purposeless. I've seen comments sit unanswered and conversations unexplored for months on end. This would have been no big deal if my grade didn't depend on another persons involvement in the course. The final Peer Review was a pain to wait through. One can submit their assignment in 10 minutes but must wait a month for it to be graded by another. I've noted too (because I did it myself) When someone finally does check the assignment they are not obligated to give marks based on criteria. I could just give full marks without checking with no consequence. When I did pay attention to what I was listening to, I heard many mistakes in pronunciation and grammar but could still give full marks because that wasn't the criteria for the assignment. Whats worse is that I'm not aware of other mistakes a native speaker could pick up, and yet...I could still give ...full marks. That needs to be corrected or removed entirely.
Sadly this review is filled with criticism, but only because I believe it has the potential to be better.
