學生對 杜克大学 提供的 Think Again II: How to Reason Deductively 的評價和反饋

The professor teaching the course did a good job explaining the concepts behind deductive reasoning. There are however some minor things that annoyed me:

(1) Some of the definitions could have been more formal. Sure, you can describe a category as a "collection of things", but a more rigid approach is useful for the more mathematically inclined.

(2) Wrong answers in the quizzes are not always explained. You just see "You should not have selected this answer." Okay, but WHY NOT? The learning experience would be better if an explanation would always be given.

(3) Some parts are incomplete. For example, the topic on immediate categorical inferences only discusses conversion. It would have been nice to discuss the obversion and contrapositive inference as well. Another example is the lack of the explicit treatment of the biconditional introduction and elimination argument, while the conjunction and disjunction introduction and elimination methods are fully covered.

(4) The time spent on the course is short in comparison to Think Again I. For example, week 3 contains less than an hour's effort. Week 2 is also rather short. Instead of cutting it short, useful concepts such as the square of opposition, which is pretty much the basis of the relations between categorical propositions, could have been discussed.

(5) At the end of one of the lectures, three links are given for further practice. One of the links didn't work.

(6) Some quizzes deal with material that is discussed in later sections.

(7) The exam was unbalanced. One lecture was about addressing the validity of an argument containing an unknown/ foreign word. The exam had many many questions about this (IMHO) less relevant subject.

All in all: the professor gets a 4.5, the content gets a 3, which makes a 4-.

The course teaches how to use Truth tables and Venn diagrams can help analyze arguments. However the explanations are convoluted and some of the examples are overly contrived.

Explains very simple things in a complicated and repetitive way.

You can skip this one!

It is absolutely terrible and i don't think it lives up to it's title and expectations. The exams are disconnected from the rest of the course, it will waste a lot of time getting through. Yes! it's a waste honestly. Prof. Ram is a nice fellow but sometimes he's just not able to deliver as much information as can be spread in a 30 min lecture. 1 stars for his efforts only!

This entire series was informative, engaging, and fun, and the thinking skills taught are so valuable.

Pros: I found the content very interesting. And there's an analogy with digital design (Boolean Logic) where F=1 and T=0 and so &=AND gate; V=OR gate; biconditional=XOR gate. Pretty useful content. Shorter 4week course. Well explained.

Cons: The exam is very hard. I dont see whats the point of making many & and V and conditional and biconditional together like a huge formula, it takes too much time the calculation. On Venn Diagrams when starts to become shaded and with crosses at the same time (using only 2 categories) I guess is not explained very well on the lectures.

Comparison with MOdule I: I found this module less applicable on the daily-life, more theoretical (but easier).

It's worthy every time anyway.

I am sharing my disappointment of the care taken by the lecturer in preparing for his lectures. He is obviously an expert in Logic, and must be very intelligent to hold his academic position - so I have given the course a pass mark.

For example his use of Venn Diagrams was sloppy. I had already worked out that I could use Venn Diagrams before he introduced the idea, and I had sketched unambiguous diagrams to help me visualize the use of quantifiers. The lecturer just used an X to mark the intersection between two sets. This is an imprecise way of showing the intersection, and he could have easily drew different Venn Diagrams that unambiguously showed the various quantifiers. Also why did the lecturer choose to sit in a crappy little room, and not even take time to remove distracting objects from the desk behind him etc. To me he sent a signal that he couldn't even take time to arrange for a appropriate background nor design clear visual aids for his students. There are other Logic courses, and I will try them and hope they are better prepared and more respectful of students.

I found the course challenging but thoroughly enjoyable.

very very challenging and tasking course. beautiful !!

It's a pity I have to rate this just a 3. In some ways the course is outstanding but the final test is a lottery for students who do not have a maths background. I would say do the course anyway it is a great introduction but the tests are poorly thought out.

That seems like a real trashing but I did say "do the course anyway" the teacher Ram Neta has a great sense of humour and makes the subject matter come alive with very good examples most of the time.

I am continuing with the other course units having just scraped a pass due to some of the material in the final test not being in the coursework.

Not great. The last quiz had questions in a format that was never saw in the materials, so what would possible be evaluated in that case? And the clases were not nearly as good as the first part of this series.

Think Again II is not as good as the first course. Examples are pretty vague and hard to follow.

The material in this course is well presented, though scarce at times. However it has its share of problems :

-little to no interaction from TA's or mentors in the forums

-the quizzes are often out of sync with the lectures

-the final exam has severe problems with questions (form not content).

In more detail, on the final exam, some of the questions don't even contain all the content to answer them. They can request multiple answers but have single question boxes and/or the reverse.

I think it's a good course, however, it focuses more on theoretical things rather than real life examples. I hope the next courses in this series have to do with more realistic experiences. I know that to learn the theory of anything is good to have a solid foundation but I don't see the point of knowing the theory if in the course is not really applied.

Both Walter and Ram are killing it at explaining this COMPLEX courses. SO GRATEFUL to Coursera for giving me the opportunity to learn from such talented people from outstanding universities.

Having completed both Think Again I and Think Again II, on with Think Again III!

I had never thought about arguments in this way before. It was super confusing to deal with language with truth tables (in a mathematical type equations). But I had fun none the less. I hope to keep practicing and implementing this in the future.

Really good course, the material and explanations are good, and even in some cases, resolving or understanding some ideas is challenging, you can get the idea with a little practice

I want to thank the amazing professor Dr. Ram Neta, who taught me this amazing skills and helped me to better understand basic logic! Thank you very much!

Well, it is not easy to master the deductive thinking skills. I have learned about how to use some tools to make them better.

This course sharpened my analytical thinking. Exam was deceptively difficult but worth taking multiple times.

harder than the first course, but so great. Thanks!

Lucid and Clear conceptions of Deductive Logic.

Amazing course, something utile for everyone.

A must course for every thinking person .