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In Cosmos, each module of self-study (see Cosmos:Cosmoprog) is called a mathema (plural: mathemata or mathemas).
The word mathema is Greek and it means "lesson". Mathemata is also Greek and it means "lessons". Mathemas is an adaptation to English.
Each mathema carries a value expressed in Cosmos:Cosmocred.
A mathema may belong to more than one cosmoprogs. A mathema is the same as a module or course.
Contents |
1 Marking
Mathemas correspond to a maximum value in Cosmos:Cosmocreds.
In order for a student to receive the maximum cosmocreds available for a mathema, they would have to receive a perfect mark in all of the following:
- essay 10.00%
- project 14.00%
- exploration 12.00% (5.00% + 7.00%)
- research 12.00%
- viva 14.00% (7.00% + 7.00%)
- exams 10.00%
- advance 12.00%
- teach 14.00% (9.00% + 5.00%)
- exclaim 2.00%
- total 100.00%
If a mathema has 10 cosmocreds and a student achieves a mark of 100% then they receive 10 cosmocreds. If, however, the student only gets a 50% mark, they only receive 5 cosmocreds.
Please understand that marks and cosmocreds have a meaning only within the Cosmos community. Cosmos is not a university. Cosmos is not accredited by anyone. Cosmos is merely a community founded by an individual User:NSK.
Students work at their own pace, and they are allowed to resubmit essays, assignments, etc as many times as they want. So, students are allowed to proceed as slowly as they want, even taking years for completing a mathema, and if they submit an essay and it gets a bad mark they are allowed to re-submit it as many times as they want. Because of this system, our expectations from students ought to be generally very high, and certainly much higher than what a traditional real university requires.
Students are allowed to present tutors with Substitutes. These are alternative pieces of work which should reveal that the student knows their stuff. But students will have to get exemption in order to be allowed to present the Substitutes.
Students who already have the same or superior knowledge from outside Cosmos, or who already have a real academic degree from a real university, will not be able to automatically claim cosmocreds, unless they do the necessary work to get earn these cosmocreds or present suitable Substitutes. This is because cosmocreds represent work within the Cosmos community.
The only way for a student to get a 100% mark is to achieve a 98% general mark, plus 2% from exceptionally original and ground-breaking work.
1.1 Essay
In an essay the student must demonstrate that they are able to deeply think about what they learnt and think of phiosophical implications etc.
1.2 Project
In a project the student must demonstrate competency in practice, ie to develop a masterpiece or generally use the acquired knowledge for something tangible.
1.3 Exploration
In exploration, the student must review the relevant books and the Internet, or ask professors outside Cosmos, or generally acquire knowledge which is already known to humanity, and come back with information and knowledge which was not covered in the mathema (but may be known by the tutors), as well as information and knowledge which is unknown to the tutors teaching the mathema.
5% (out of 12%) of the exploration mark comes from knowledge which is merely new to the mathema, while the rest 7% (out of 12%) comes from knowledge which is completely unknown to the tutors teaching the mathema.
The tutors are expected to truthfully reveal whether they were aware of a certain piece of knowledge found by the student.
1.4 Research
In research, the student must do experiments, surveys, or use other research methods for gaining new data, information, or knowledge which is unknown to the humanity (and of course also unknown to the tutors).
1.5 Viva
In viva, the student logs on in Cosmos's IRC chatroom (#wikinerds in Freenode) and participates in two live activities: The primaviva and the discussion.
The primaviva is the real viva in which the tutors, other students, and all members of the Cosmos community present some questions to the student, who is expected to answer them immediately. The primaviva gains a maximum of 50% mark of the viva mark.
The discussion is just that: a discussion with tutors, fellow students, and other Cosmos members in which the student being examined should display competency and understanding of the knowledge contained in the mathema.
1.6 Examinations
In Cosmos, all examinations are done on the wiki and are open-book exams.
1.7 Advance
The student is expected to advance the state of the mathema. So, a student should help Cosmos rewrite some content in the mathema, bring new content, or help revise the mathema in other ways.
In Cosmos, no mathema is considered to be perfect, ever.
1.8 Teach
The student is expected to be able to teach another student shortly before completing their mathema.
9% of the teaching mark will come from the teaching methods and effort the student makes to transmit their newly acquired knowledge to a fellow student.
The rest of the mark, 5%, will be given based on the final mathema marks of the student's student.
1.9 Exclaim
The student will be awarded up to 2% for exceptionally good and original work.
1% will be awarded to any student who does exceptional work, regardless of their other marks in the mathema. Therefore if a student has gained a 57% mark in the mathema but the tutor thinks that they submitted some work which was of extremely superior quality and originality, then they can award a 1% bonus to bring the total mark to 58%.
The rest 1% will only be awarded to students who have achieved a 99% mark in the mathema.