So I've “taken” this “course”.
Which is to say, I watched five short (under ten minutes each) videos introducing the content of some chapters of a book. And answered “yes” to the question, “did you watch the videos?”
For that I'll get a certificate. Huh.
Basically, this “course” feels like a trailer for a book. The ideas mentioned are enticing; I may buy the book sometime in the future. But huh, I thought I'd signed up for a big data course, where I'd get to learn some skills and/or theory, about, y'know, big data applied to social behaviours. I feel kind of cheated.
I suppose it's a kind of experiment − by providing a social reward (the edX/MITx certificate, the occasion to discuss big ideas on the edX forums) and wrapping it under the guise of an “MIT class”, maybe Alex Pentland and team are trying to see if the sales numbers for the book skyrocket? It's one of their basic tenets anyway, that social rewards are better incentives than economic rewards.
So anyway, don't go there. It's not worth it, unless you're curious about the Social Physics book and considering buying it anyway − you can view this “course” as a kind of glossy brochure for the book.
PS: though that's an edX course finished and a certificate I'll get, I'm not entering it in the Completed courses page on this blog; it's so far from deserving the title of “course” that putting up that certificate on my wall would be intellectual fraud on my part.
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