1. November 19, 2013

    Hi Everyone!

    Congratulations on completing the third exam! Today marks the start of Week 10.

    Remember to try and post your forum contributions to the [Official] Discussion posts for the lecture. For this week they can be found at Lecture 19, Lecture 20, and Lecture 21.

    We hope you enjoy the lectures this week!

  2. November 12, 2013

    Hi Everyone!

    Congratulations on another great week! Your contributions continue to be fantastic!

    Today marks the beginning of Week 9 and this week contains your third exam.

    For those of you who finish the exam early and want something to watch, or if you are just interested, below is a lecture that Professor Jarzombek gave at Texas A&M about global architectural history. It will be particularly interesting for those of you interested in why this way of teaching of architectural history is being developed. Hope you enjoy!

    NOTE: We have extended the deadline for lecture 16 until tomorrow, 1400UTC. Thank you for brining to our attention that the due date was set wrong. We are unable to do this for individuals.

  3. November 5, 2013

    Hi Everyone!

    Congratulations on completing Week 7! Today marks the start of Week 8. The submissions to the forum were again great this past week. Your images and pictures have been very helpful and add a great visual component to the forum. Keep up the great contributions and anything you can illustrate with images would be great!

    Remember to try and post your contributions to the [Official] Discussion posts for the lecture. For this week they can be found at Lecture 16, Lecture 17, and Lecture 18.

    For this week, we have some Word Games ! There is a word search and hangman! Some of these words will be new to you, but we hope that you can do further research on these words.

    Best of luck! And Enjoy!

  4. October 30, 2013

    NOTE: Also, a big thank you to the EdX team for resolving some lingering technical problems. We are now able to address the review questions for last week. We have decided to give everyone credit for questions 12.2.2 and 12.4.2 due to the confusion. Thank you for bringing them to our attention!

  5. October 24, 2013

    Hi Everyone!

    Just a note to let you all know that we have been in the process of addressing your concerns regarding some of the review questions for this past week. Please have patience, as there are some technical issues that we are working through before we will be able to do so.

    Also, a reminder to keep your contributions to the forum positive and constructive. We appreciate all of your feedback. If you have suggestions or recommendations for the course, put them in the [Official] Course Feedback thread, so that they will be collated together. This is beneficial for the course team here to see them more quickly, and, more importantly, it is beneficial for all the other students, as it leaves other posts free for discussions of the course material.

    All best!

    4.605x Course Team

  6. October 21, 2013

    Hi Everyone!

    This coming week marks the midway point! Congratulations on making it this far! And a huge thank you from all of us here and on behalf of your fellow students for making it such an enriching experience.

    This past week we had a ton of incredible posts in the forum. Keep them coming!

    Tomorrow starts your second exam! Good luck!

  7. October 14, 2013

    Hi everyone!

    Congratulations on completing week 4! Tomorrow starts week 5. We hope that you are enjoying the class and the forums! Your contributions have been incredible again. We are continually impressed with the quality of your responses and your discussions with your fellow students. Keep up the good work!

  8. October 11, 2013

    Dear students,

    I hope the exam was not too hard.

    Remember, you do not have to complete the exams to participate in the course. So whether you are aiming for a certificate or just auditing, welcome back.

    And keep contributing to those great posts on the comment page.

    Professor Mark Jarzombek

    NOTE FROM TEAM: The textbook compatibility issue with Chrome has now been resolved. Thank you for your patience.

  9. October 7, 2013

    Hi Everyone!

    Congratulations on completing your first exam! Tomorrow starts the beginning of Week 4.

    We wanted to reiterate how great the course has been because of your participation in forum. You are making a real contribution to the richness of this course for your fellow students and also for all of us! We look forward to all of your comments in the coming week.

    We have created a new post called "[Official] Related Content: Week 4." More than one of you suggested the creation of thread where people can post outside content related to the course that you can all share. All the best on a productive week 4!

    NOTE: EdX is working with vitalsource to fix the lingering issue with the textbook. It seems that the recent Chrome update has effected some users ability to access the textbook. If possible, please use Firefox at this time.
  10. October 3, 2013

    Textbook/E-reader issue

    It has been brought to our attention that there is a display issue with the e-reader. EdX is currently looking into this and we hope to have the e-reader/textbook back in working order as soon as possible.

  11. September 30, 2013

    Tomorrow marks the start of week 3 in 4.605x. Congratulations to all on another great week! The forums were active and the contributions were incredible! Your positive attitude on the forums in commendable. Keep up the great work and attitudes helping others where possible!

    Week 3 marks the first Exam in the course. The exam covers content from Lectures 1-6. While we encourage you to study the lecture material before taking the exam, you are free to review any of the course content while this exam is in progress. We wish you the best of luck on this exam!

    We would also like to take this opportunity to introduce two Community TAs. You have probably already seen them around the forums. They are FredericEekman and Laurajean13. Their role as community TAs and students is to help everyone navigate the forums and to, as you all do, help each other with any problems and issues that might arise.

    We have also noticed many of you have been providing feedback for the course around various threads in the forum. There is now an [Official] Course Feedback thread, so that all of your suggestions can be voiced in one place to inform future offerings of this course.

    NOTE: Many of you have had problems with review question 4.6.4. Because of this there has been a reevaluation of this question. We have decided to give credit to both "sacred section" as well as "sacred plan." We appreciate all the discussion about this question in trying to understand the implication of Professor Jarzombek's lecture. It was very productive for everyone to think through. Please know that granaries have a sacred section not a sacred plan.

    All the best for a productive week 3!

  12. September 23, 2013

    We will soon be entering week 2 of 4.605x and from our perspective the course is progressing nicely. You have all been extremely active, and the discussion forums have been lively and engaged. Keep up the great work!

    ENTRANCE SURVEY:

    At the start of week 2 you will be asked to fill out an entrance survey. Please take the time to share your feedback on the course and complete the survey. The purpose of the survey is to learn more about you, your needs and determine better ways to manage and design the course in the future. An exit survey will also be posted at the end of the class.

    FORUM:

    The forum truly is the heart of an online course and you have not only been active but very thoughtful and insightful with your postings on the forum. We have learned a lot from you, as we hope you have from each other.

    We have noticed that the conversations in the [Official] threads for each lecture have been much more rich and engaged than those posts outside of the [Official] threads. We encourage you, then, to post within the [Official] lecture threads as much as possible to create a rich, classroom-like conversation. To access the [Official] lecture (lecture 1, 2, 3,) thread, please find them on the left navigation menu in the Discussion Forum or you can access the [Official] questions in the content for each lecture. (i.e, after a video or review questions, you’ll find a discussion forum question or post).

    You can also search the threads posted outside of the [Official] threads, since there are some great contributions there as well. Please use the search function in the forum to find posts about what you are contributing. For example, there are many, many individual posts about Native Americans that relate to the first [Official] lecture. A quick search would allow you to post in an [Official] thread that has already been started about this topic. This would help to really develop a deep, rich conversation about the topic.

    Finally please label the subject titles of your posts carefully. (i.e., if you are answering a certain questions, include related keywords in the subject area)

    REVIEW QUESTIONS:

    We have decided to remove question 2.7.2. This question asks, “Which of these do not appear in the art of Chauvet Cave? : Bears, Lions, Dots, Birds.” As many of you have correctly pointed out, they all appear.

    As for the review questions for lecture 3.3 : Many of you have pointed out that these question are only answerable after watching lecture 3.4. We have moved them, but the answers may have reset. To fix this, we have removed the due date from lecture unit 3.4. This allows you to go back and answer the questions again. You will need to do this preferably this week or before the course closes. in December.

    Thank you everyone, and we look forward to all of your contributions in the coming weeks!

  13. September 17, 2013

    Welcome to 4.605x, A Global History of Architecture: Part 1!

    Students from across the world are registered for this course. This specific learning context offers a rich peer environment to learn, discuss, and debate architecture as it is understood, used, and designed in various parts of the globe. One of the most important aspects of the course is that you, the student, are a context for thinking about architecture; we the 4.605x course team urge you to participate in the discussion forums and to use all the tools available to you while you are in the course.

    We have pre-addressed some of your questions about this course in the "FAQ" document, downloadable through the "Course Handouts" panel at right.

    For an overview of how this course is organized, please download the "Course Overview and Syllabus," also available in the "Course Handouts" panel at right. This document also contains grading standards and a schedule of lectures and exams.

    Additionally, we ask that you please review the rules and regulations of our course discussion forum. These are available in the "Discussion Forum Best Practices," which can be downloaded through a link in the "Course Handouts" panel, at right.

    There are two textbooks that accompany this course. Though it is not required that you complete the readings, you are encouraged to do so. The readings will greatly enhance your experience of this course and build your knowledge of the subjects discussed in the lectures. The textbooks are available under the "Courseware" tab. A reading list is available for download in the "Course Handouts" panel, at right, and under the "Reading List" tab.

    All students should use CHROME or FIREFOX as their preferred browser.