02-01-2017, 10:56 PM
I signed up and started at Shmoop last week.
Literature in the Media: I enjoyed the course overall and found the style of writing to fit this course very well. I really wasn't interested in reading any sick-lit and was glad to find the summary of Fault in our Stars was more than enough to pass the tests. Completed over 3 days.
Shakespeare's Plays: I didn't get a good start on this course and by the end of the first unit only had 68%. As the course went on I started getting the hang of it and finished the course at 80%. I only used the summaries, themes, characters and analysis, I didn't read the full plays. I didn't feel the sarcastic/witty writing style worked too well here, by the end of course I was feeling a little tired of it and felt that the subject deserved a more neutral tone. Completed over the weekend.
The writing style at Shmoop is interesting, and I get that it is probably aimed at teenagers, but i'm not sure how long these courses are going to work for Shmoop. They use a lot of current slang, jokes, and viral internet themes, which might become dated pretty quickly, requiring a rewrite of all the courses in the next few years. For me, it starts out as interesting and helps to get into the material, but then becomes tiring to read after a few hours and I wish it would just stop.
On to the next course.
Another big thanks to Notgodot for doing all the legwork at TESU, this is a big help to me right now and is going to help a lot of people in the future.
Literature in the Media: I enjoyed the course overall and found the style of writing to fit this course very well. I really wasn't interested in reading any sick-lit and was glad to find the summary of Fault in our Stars was more than enough to pass the tests. Completed over 3 days.
Shakespeare's Plays: I didn't get a good start on this course and by the end of the first unit only had 68%. As the course went on I started getting the hang of it and finished the course at 80%. I only used the summaries, themes, characters and analysis, I didn't read the full plays. I didn't feel the sarcastic/witty writing style worked too well here, by the end of course I was feeling a little tired of it and felt that the subject deserved a more neutral tone. Completed over the weekend.
The writing style at Shmoop is interesting, and I get that it is probably aimed at teenagers, but i'm not sure how long these courses are going to work for Shmoop. They use a lot of current slang, jokes, and viral internet themes, which might become dated pretty quickly, requiring a rewrite of all the courses in the next few years. For me, it starts out as interesting and helps to get into the material, but then becomes tiring to read after a few hours and I wish it would just stop.
On to the next course.
Another big thanks to Notgodot for doing all the legwork at TESU, this is a big help to me right now and is going to help a lot of people in the future.
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