Dear Course Particpant,
Thank you once again for submitting your answers to the first task.
I have read them all and graded them. Please let me share a bit of feedback which may be helpful in your future assignments. The feedback will address all the assignments on a general level. If you are individually in need of more information, please contact me.
First of all I would like to say that your assignments were generally well-written. I liked the fact that many of you proved that you watched both the TED talk and read the presentation. Quite a few of you also shared interesting personal insights pertaining to the class material and added considerations about the possibility of improving our decision making (or inherent difficulties associated with that quest). These were exactly the aspects that I was looking for and that I mentioned in the task description. Well done.
One thing that would have been an improvement to some of the assignments is a more general outlook on biases and heuristics. Some of you indicated for example that you have learned about the way in which people’s decision can be influenced when instead of two they are given three options. That is a great example used by Dan Ariely and definitely it is true. However my main goal for that class was to get you acquainted with the fact that there are many heuristics and biases, that they are related to the way in which our mind operates and quite difficult to control (even if we are aware of them). Every single heuristic and example was meant to simply show the evidence of that fact.
Each of you was assigned point for the task (max. 10). If on the e-learning platform you are shown a different number as a possible maximum, disregard it. Your score is out of 10. These points reflect the fact that clearly different people put a different amount of effort and produced insights of different depth. Your points for all the assignments will be a basis of one element of your final assessment (participation and contribution). It is not possible to indicate how many assignments of that kind we will have as no one knows when the return to normal classes will be possible. Certainly it is wise to keep a decent level of the assignment quality.
In case you need any additional information or have any questions, please let me know.
Kind regards,
Pawel Ziemianski
