Begining my Journey with edX

I'm starting on my first edX course,ColWri2.2x Principles of Written English.

We've been shown a video talking about vocabulary. The first time through the video, I listened to the audio, vaguely wondering why they had random images interspersed through the clip. Then, at the end, the video asked me to go back and write down what each of the images was. This doesn't appear to be a critical piece of assessment (just a learning activity) so my answers are as follows.

1. A lightning bolt on a nighttime sky, white against the midnight blue. The skyline sits darkly along the base of the photograph, trees stark and black.
2. A fortress or castle. Stone walls are topped with crenelations in the daytime sun.
3. A windmill set against the bright white and blue of cirrus flecked against the sky 
4. A dandelion head, seeds ready to disperse.
5. A black-and-white image of a harpist, head bowed, hands on his harp. In the background, people watch.
6. A multicoloured mass of opaque seed beads.
7. Fountains; jets of water lit from below in multiple hues against the darkness.
8. A lone snail seeking its way across the pebbled ground.
9. Yellow mushrooms clustered upon a mossy section of wood.
10. Red candles aflame in the still air of the dark room, burning down, liquid wax pooling around them.
11. A red cockerel.
12. Snugly clothed children skating on a ice.
13. Lily-pads on water.
14. A thick, white rope wrapped about a bollard.
15. Multi-coloured drinking straws.
16. A red park bench set against the afternoon sky.
17. Blue tinted cats-eye marbles.
18. A camera lens, detached from its camera.
19. A parachutist falls gently toward the ground. In the background, a snowy mountain fills the sky.
20. Paperclips - hot pink, lemon yellow, cobalt blue, pumpkin orange, lime green, imperial red.
21. A footprint in the sand.
22. Parodia cacti.

Later in the course, we have been given a list of everything that appeared. Their descriptions were, of course, much simpler than mine, but the keywords they've used are consistent with mine (except for #11... where I called it a cockerel, they've called it a rooster).


Just prior to our second assessable item, we've been asked to read a section and to write down any words we don't know. I know all the words used in the passage (with the exception of whow, but I believe this to be a typographic error--the word should have been who), but I was unclear on the meaning of "assay". I did understand it to be some method of determining worth, but I have now discovered (thanks to the magic of typing "assay definition" into a search engine) that it is determining the content of a metal or ore. So not too far off.

So I managed to complete my first week of my course fairly quickly, with full marks on the two banks of quiz questions. This makes me happy. However, the first week is always the easiest, so we'll see what happens in the future.