If everyone can settle down we can get started on week three of Society, Science, Survival: Lessons from The Walking Dead. This week’s module covered different types of societies, how they come about and how leaders emerge within societies. Themes of isolation and the human need for human contact are discussed in depth and questions such as ‘how do we define society?’ are answered.
As we did for week one and two, we again took a look at how well the course answered our questions and graded each section accordingly.
Weekly Readings: A
This week’s readings were comprehensive and gave students a wealth of knowledge about six different types of societies. This time, however, instead of separate categories of required and optional readings, all of the readings were required and optional — meaning that students had to do some of the readings, but they could pick and choose which theories they wanted to read about.
Guest Instructors: B
Physics professor Michael Dennin got Sonequa Martin-Green’s (Sasha) opinion on how her character felt about going back to the prison and how she — Martin-Green not her character — would rebuild in the post-apocalyptic world.
Visual Materials (Photos): A+
As usual, there were only a few photos, but this week, TWDMOOC showed us gift packages that they sent the cast members of the show. The UC Irvine team wanted to thank the actors and actress’ support of the class by sending them a collection of UC Irvine T-shirts as well as a hand knit Daryl doll made by one of the teams colleagues. Out of all the gifts we’ve seen fans send to cast members, this one scores as one of the cutest.
Visual Materials (Videos): A+
Extra clips used this week to illustrate the themes of the course brought us back to times when the group was broken and trying to find a way to hold onto old values in their newly apocalyptic world. One of the most poignant scenes used was when the group had to decide what to do with an outsider, Randal, who may have posed a threat to the group and their livelihood. Do they let him go, or kill him?
Quiz: C+
This week’s quiz grade for us was average, which is perfectly fine because — as promised by the course instructors — online badges that serve as proof of module completion rolled out on the course site. The badges are issued by Instructure, the company who runs the course website, and can be shared via a link from the badges page.
Classic Horror streaming 24/7 on Macabre Theatre via FilmOn:
Related Links:
Going to School with the Walking Dead: Week One
Zombies Ate My Homework: Week Two
