A lot of the material felt like little more than a bombardment of names. The first assignment was awful, there was no way to infer what was required from us from the assignment's description. People have been saying this for over a year, yet there was no attempt to fix the assignment. Quite a few of the videos were of very poor quality. The sand video in the Geomancy module, for example, was amongst the worst I've seen on Coursera.

Very informative and helpful in understanding some of the unexplained areas of Anthropology. However there are too many videos (which can be hard for the hearing impaired considering the accompanying text is in need of improvement), not enough faculty and instructor support and the syllabus is in need of detail and structure.

Such a poorly designed and executed course. It seems thrown together without any attention to learning design and without clear learning outcomes and objectives. We were bombarded with names and facts without being offered any analysis, commentary or opportunities for critical reflection. The course was never tied to grander themes about history/humanity/ science or to contemporary events. The videos were almost completely devoid of visuals. Illuminated manuscripts and artworks could have been used to engage students’ visual senses. Week 4 was absolutely terrible. It was like watching a head read an encyclopedic entry. Why did we have to memorize the name Maslama Ibn Qāsim al-Qurṭubī, for instance? This is a serious question. My recommendation is to get an instructional designer or someone with pedagogical knowledge and expertise review the course and offer suggestions. It’s a shame that such an interesting topic was presented in such a terrible, mundane manner. I’d paid in advance for the certificate because I was very excited about the subject matter, but would have never gotten past Week 1 if I hadn’t made a financial commitment.

I learnt a lot from this module. The lessons are incredibly interesting especially for those who are interested in the Medieval Ages and the beliefs of the people back then

I found this course a little bit superficial, at least for the Spanish part. In my opinion some lessons are like a big introduction that has never come up to treat the subject in depth. Maybe I had a too high expectation but it is an university course and the title "Magic in the middle age" is so, so, attractive. Anyway my advice is: before pay for this course, follow the lessons as an auditor.

Sorry for my english and hope my review could be useful for someone.

A pretty intereseing course. Personally I liked it and it shed some light on the concept of Magic, Sorcery, Witchcraft, and the implications of the church or the views of the church on it. It does take a political turn. The concept pretty much was, if a child was ill, he/she was better left to die, to try to heal/treat the child via magic methods. Interesting. I can see the Biblical implications, however, with the arival of the inquisitors (which were leading some kind of rituals in secret) under the supervision of the Pope... This part is shows the political implications. Apparently, there was nu jurisdiction that these inquisitors had, therefore, it was a matter of beliefs in the end. Believing in God, vs. Witchcraft. So the freedom of religion in a way is not necessarily existant since persecution takes place. Interesting course. I would recommend it if you want to learn more about Magic and the arrival or the notion of such.

A fascinating look into magic in the Middle Ages, without it being a western-centric or judgemental way of examining the subject. The lecturers always maintained their descriptivist perspective, and succeeded in teaching a lot of different sections in a very short space of time. I particularly enjoyed the look into Astrology & geomancy, because with the current trends around popular astrology, it was fascinating to look into the history behind these practices. Magic in Islam, too, was a brilliant section. Many thanks to the university of Barcelona for offering the course.

Interesting topics, however, some lessons were far too long to retain esoteric information (particularly if this was a first exposure to the topic e.g. unit 4 in particular). In addition, while the transcripts were helpful, the instructors spoke far too quickly - again, it didn't help retention. Finally, the quizzes tended to ask obscure questions that didn't always match what was described in the lectures (felt discouraging).

Certain aspects of the course could be improved, particularly in the way the material is presented. There could also be more focus on what is important rather than unnecessary etymologies and listing of names which doesn't add to any conceptual understanding. That time could rather be used to go into more depth with some of the practices.

https://evidenceandreason.wordpress.com/2017/01/29/review-magic-in-the-middle-ages/

I feel there are many more topics to discuss for this course. I also feel that the topics discussed could be examined in further detail and at a slower pace. And there were times when the speaker was quiet or the microphone didn't work properly and I had a difficult time hearing what was being talked about.

Could have more detail. This course feels rushed and skims over a lot of things without detailed explanation. The quizzes and peer assessments are poorly worded and confusing. Week 4 was excellent, Prof. Godefroid de Callatay's lectures about Magic in Islam were very well delivered and informative.

Interesting info but speakers give very disjointed lectures and don't give background on a lot of new terms so its very hard to understand.

quizzes were thoughtful

peer work not so much

audio was poor

content without context of era

A very good but in my opinion not so specific course.

While this course presents great content and valuable information, the caveat is in the overall experience. The moderators and instructors are nonexistent and cannot be reached. There is only one moderator who finally did his job and showed up to deal with some issues that many classmates were having (including myself), and even his response time is only once every week! So, he only started checking in once a week after I had already nearly completed the whole course. There are also some serious issues with glitches, technicalities and not being able to pass assignments and grade others' assignments. I completed this course a week ago, and many of my classmates are not able to complete it due to extreme glitches, like the system not taking in their projects and not even allowing them to move forward. It's such a shame. I'm the lucky one in that I was able to finish the course. The others? Not so lucky. They're still stuck back there and the staff of this course is really just not around and doesn't care! It's such a shame because, like I said, the material presented in this course is informative and valuable information.

I feel that this course is not looked after. Teachers are not actively present. There was an error on one quiz and another assignment was very poorly explained, leading to many feeling like we lost marks due to not knowing exactly what was expected of us. Many of the lessons waste time gushing over what's coming next, but quite often the lesson itself feels weak and vague. At some points I struggled to understand the point the lessons were trying to make. I learned a few interesting things, but for the most part I'm extremely disappointed with this course.

The female lecture's speech is so fast and unclear, even though the subject itself is very interesting but I have to leave this class.

Very structured content. This course syllabus brings up various subjects about the magic in middle ages. You can dive into a specific topic after completing this course. Instructors are very dedicated and good academicians. They are trying to improve the content based of our comments. Also chapter forums are helpful and tracked by instructors. Besides, lectures are easy to follow with video and text at the same time. But the language sometimes a bit difficult to understand because of very long sentences. Anyway, I strongly recommend you take the course if you have interest to subject and I want to thank to academicians.

I greatly appreciated the erudite content and approach of the lecture and the quality of links and supporting material. The lecturers were all outstanding. Since I am living in a country that seems to be embracing ignorance at warp speed, it was also refreshing and reassuring to hear the words of European scholars who value scholarship and critical thinking. This course has spurred my interest in the anthropological and historical examination of magic. I actually want to review the material of the course a second time! Thank you so much!

An incredibly intriguing course that goes into historical depth on a topic most people often wonder about, but don't get to dive deeply into in today's world.

I thought it was engaging, fascinating, and I truly felt like I was learning about historical magic and the presence of it in the Medieval Ages. This course also helped to clear some of my misconceptions about magic in the time period - especially about inquisitors and the different views of magic - and it I found it an exceptionally valuable academic tool.

Outstanding quality of the professors, really pedagogically and atractive classes (not a display of presentations, this is eye-to-eye- kind of presence), comprehensive but extremelly compacted information, comprehensive bibliography that includes all the topic treated or barely mentioned. It's an enjoyable trip to the concept of magic and the social understanding of that word, in the Middle Ages throught the eyes of Catholic, Jewish and Astro-Scientists of the period.

I enjoyed this course. Especially the lectures about the Islamic view of magic as I was unfamiliar with it.

Also, the information about the Inquisitors dispelling the preconceived ideas we all had about them.

I suggest the lecturers speak slower and also enunciate words clearly. It was hard to understand sometimes and I also suggest that the transcripts into English be edited, as some of them do not make sense. I had to read the Spanish version in some cases.

Very interesting concept about magic in the Middle Ages, touching upon natural vs. demonic magic, heresy, mythology of witchcraft, astrology, and much more! Compact lectures (which may be a lot of first, but better to get more information than just a simple overview) that covered interesting points of the subject and inspired a different point of view of magic during that time.

It was such a great course where I have learned a lot about history, middle ages, religion and a lot of interesting past. I'm thankful to learned with amazing teachers that shared with students their knowledge. I'm so glad to choose this course!

Excecllent introduction, lectures were engaging and gave just enough detail to whet the appetite for more offline reading. No wonder this is one of the top-rated MOOCs out there!