FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQs)
This page contains Frequently Asked Questions. If other questions appear frequently in the discussion forums we'll add links here to the pinned forum threads during the course.
How much does the course cost?
Nothing! You have full access to all of the course material for free!
What if I want a Verified Certificate of Achievement?
Verified Certificates of Achievement are a great way to officially demonstrate your completion of the course. This could be a benefit to you in a future job or college application. Completing the course with a verified certificate costs $50. You can upgrade to the verified track any time before the course ends.
How do I navigate the course?
Much of the "Prologue" lesson of the course is devoted to teaching you have to navigate and interact with the course. See the first video in the Prologue for a course orientation. The remaining learning material for the course can be found in the Courseware link. Details about the course content, assessment and prior knowledge required can be found in the Syllabus, Schedule and Assessment link.
When is assessment due?
All course assessment will be open for 2 weeks after it is made available to students. After that, the relevant course material and questions will still be able to accessed, but answering the assessment questions will not be counted towards your grade in the course. See the Syllabus, Schedule and Assessment link for details on key dates and times in the course.
How do I use the discussion forum?
The discussion forum is a resource for you to share questions, answers, ideas, etc. with your fellow classmates and the Course Staff. For details on how to use and navigate the forum, go to the second video in the Prologue. The forum will be moderated by Course Staff. Some guidelines:
- Before posting, search the forum to make sure your question has not already been answered - the less clutter the better!
- Upvote good posts - this will ensure the best posts are easy to find.
- Please ensure that you are polite to other students, and note that for many students English will not be their first language.
- Observe the honor code - do not ask for nor post solutions to assessment or final exam questions. It is however fine to discuss general approaches to solving these problems - in fact we encourage collaboration between students both within and outside of edX!
You have been randomly placed in a cohort in the discussion forum. These cohorts have been created to keep the discussions to a size that will be more intimate and easier for you to interact with. Discussion forum categories with an "(everyone)" next to them are not split into cohorts.
Note that the discussion forum categories for Lesson 2 onwards have not been split into cohorts. Depending on the effect this has on the forum, the cohorts may be removed for other forum categories as well. Any changes made will be advised here, in the discussion forum, and on the Course Info page.
How to post mathematical symbols in the forum.
What software will I need to use during the course?
The default software for the course is Microsoft Excel.
For those who don't have Excel loaded onto their computers, Excel Online is an appropriate alternative. Excel Online is a free, but limited, version of Excel which is hosted online. All spreadsheets we use in this course will be able to be opened and used in Excel online. Note that you will need to have a Microsoft account to use Excel online.
Another alternative is Open Office, which is a free, open source suite of software that somewhat mimics Microsoft Office. All spreadsheets we use in this course will be able to be opened and used in Open Office Calc, the Open Office equivalent of Excel.
Who are the Course Staff?
The Course Instructor, Dr Adam Butt, is a Senior Lecturer in actuarial studies and statistics at the Australian National University. Two Teaching Assistants, Preetham Arvind and Man Yui Ngai, will assist Adam in monitoring the discussion forums. Preetham and Man Yui are both final year actuarial students at Australian National University. You can meet them in the Prologue.
How will my personal and course-related data in the course be used?
Course Staff have access to the information you supplied when you set up your edX account, along with any information you provide in the Coursework elements of the course. This information will be used to analyse course engagement and progress across a variety of demographic factors, with a view to improving the course for future iterations. In addition, the Course Staff and associated researchers are using the course to undertake a research project investigating the effect of social engagement on course engagement and performance. Further information regarding this research project can be found in the following information sheet. Your identity will be held in confidence in reports in which any research that is published based on this report. If you would not like your personal and course-related data to be analysed for this research project, then please enter your edX username in the following box.
Other questions
If you have any more general questions about edX, you are encouraged to visit the edX FAQ page.