It has been so great working with all of you over the last 12 weeks.
>> The goal has to been to learn how to evaluate and analyze arguments.
>> Now, something totally new. >> You get to construct your own argument.
This is an experiment. >> You all submitted around 400 arguments.
>> And thousands of extremely helpful comments on each others arguments.
Woah, that was great. >> Our heartfelt thanks to all of you.
>> There were many, many, many, many, many, many, many wonderful arguments.
>> An emotional roller coaster. >> I laughed and I cried.
>> It was so hard to pick which ones to discuss this week.
>> They all deserved discussion. >> We were so sad that we couldn't discuss
them all. >> But we might use some of them the next
time we offer this course. >> Still, how are we going to pick which
ones to discuss this week? >> You all helped us with your votes.
But, as Durval pointed out, the voting system, is biased.
>> A fair election requires equal exposure to all the voters.
>> As I write, there are 350 plus arguments in the discussion forum.
>> If the voter spends one minute reading each one of them it would take them over
six hours to read them all. So voters are not going to read them all.
Spaker: Threads, in the first pages will have more views.
>> By default, the first pages show top threads.
The ones that are most replied, most voted up and most commented on.
>> Threads posted recently. Go to the end of the queue, thus receiving
less attention and less votes. Therefore, this voting system is biased.
Wow, what a wonderful argument! No wonder this received over 100 votes
from other students. >> But it says that these very votes are
biased. Hm.
That's self refutation. >> Anyway, we're convinced by Duval that
the voting system was imperfect. But of course, >> Imperfect does not mean
totally worthless. >> The votes were affected by many factors
other than quality. >> This whole poll repeats the lesson that
we learned >> In week six. About bias sampler.
Because this whole voting method, is just another example of a bias way to sample
student opinions about whatever. >> So we used several other considerations
to decide which argument we're going to discuss.
>> The first thing we considered was your votes, because we wanted to hit the topics
that interested you. >> The second thing we considered was the
quality of the arguments submitted, because we want to provide helpful models
of good. >> Argumentation.
>> The 3rd thing we considered was distribution, because we'd like to make
the lectures this week be an overview of all the different things that we've
covered in the course. And the fourth thing we considered was how
useful the submitted arguments are in helping us to make new points that we did
not have time to make in the course up until now, because there's a lot more to
say. About reasoning and argument, than we've
said so far in this course. Because we use all of these
considerations, you cannot infer from the fact that we don't discuss your argument
or don't discuss your favorite argument, that, that means that we don't think that
argument's any good. We had to pick in ways that, even we don't
like. So please don't think, that simply because
yours isn't included, that we didn't like it.
We did. >> And besides, the point of this course
is not to win, but to learn. So enjoy the videos this week, as we look
back over the 12 weeks of think again.