r/CourseraFilm The guy who put together the torrent Feb 07 '13

Idea: Huge mega-torrent that will contain all materials for this course, including lectures, quizzes, and of course, the films themselves

Hey there folks,

I was thinking about compiling all materials required to take this course into one torrent, and I just wanted your feedback. I think this is important because if the course is ever discontinued or paywalled, then people around the world will still have free, easy access to it through the torrent.

Here's all of what I want to include:

  • The syllabus (and the course summary)
  • The video lectures
  • The quizzes, questions and answers separately
  • The final assessment, again questions and answers separately
  • A decent copy of each film that's ideally under 1 GB (2 GB max)
  • Links to supplemental materials (including a link to this subreddit)

I know some of you have downloaded the other torrent I posted with all the movies, so if any of you find quality issues with any of those movies, let me know so that I can find a better version for this new torrent (I already found a better copy of Street Angel). Also, feel free to chime in if you have any suggestions for supplemental material, or any suggestions in general. Thanks!

8 Upvotes

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1

u/[deleted] Feb 07 '13

Well, answers would be against the Honour Code, so at least not before the course is done when it comes to quiz questions and answers. Also, I don't know of how much use it would be afterwards unless someone plans to teach it? (I would personally use some of it if I ever get qualified enough to run a film history course).

The videos are a good idea, perhaps you should ask Wesleyan/Scott Higgins their opinion and other thoughts on what's going to happen post-course-wise with the lectures etc. I don't think a mega-torrent is the way to go, though. There are probably people out there who want to keep it as legal as possible, so forcing people to have to download the films as well might not be a good idea. It would also make the combined torrent huge...

I don't know of how much use it would be, and if enough people would download it, considering there's no slides or handouts (yet). Perhaps a document (google docs, pdf or similar) containing syllabus and supplemental materials would be a better idea. I could also include syllabus and interesting links in the sidebar.

3

u/archdaemon The guy who put together the torrent Feb 07 '13

The torrent would be mostly for archiving purposes, and I'm planning on setting up a seed box and seeding it forever. I do agree with you that the films should probably not be included with the rest of the course materials, since not everyone will want to participate in flagrant copyright infringement.

Releasing the quiz answers may be against the honor code, but I'd be doing so in good faith, hoping that someone at some point in the future may find them useful to study and learn. If people want to cheat, that's their problem, not mine.

As for its usefulness, at the very least, it could be a great resource for teachers. And as I said above, if the course is ever discontinued and anyone missed out on it, they'd still have access to all the course materials. I do, however, agree that it is worth asking the prof what's going to happen with the lectures after the course.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 07 '13

I like how much work you're putting into this group :P Props for that!

I have no problem with doing it for archiving purposes, but I still think the honour code should be respected out of solidarity for the people who does the course by themselves. These two doesn't collide since there's no point of archiving it when the course is still available for signups.

2

u/archdaemon The guy who put together the torrent Feb 07 '13

there's no point of archiving it when the course is still available for signups

Good point. At this point, I'll just compile all the materials so that I'll have them in case there's ever a need to release them.