JY
Apr 14, 2020
Provides a fascinating and important approach to studying this topic. The professor's framework and intellectual depth enriched my understanding of this important and enduring problem.
LK
Oct 12, 2018
An eye opening experience. I really hope this becomes a mandated course among anyone participating in any diplomatic initiatives in the Middle East and the Arabic world.
By Smriti
•May 27, 2020
nice course
By Sam B
•Jul 24, 2020
This was my first course on Coursera. For context, I am final year undergraduate student studying International Relations, I am quite experienced in this area.
I had high expectations for the course, but sadly these were not met. The content itself was interesting, but presented in a very dry way. Dr. Afsah was clearly reading from a script the entire time, and the information became very hard to absorb because he was not really 'lecturing', but rather just 'presenting'. Very convoluted academic language was used, which also often did not make sense (English is obviously not his first language, but he is nevertheless very educated). The fact that, I, and educated university student who speaks native English, could not understand The quizzes are quite easy and there is no other form of assessment.
My biggest criticism is of the discussion forums. My native language is English, and none of the prompts made sense. There was no question, or even a point of contention. Instead, simply a statement with little context. I was not alone in not understanding this, as 90% of people did not respond at all (like me), or simply wrote one or two words (like 'good'). Discussion forums and prompts can be a great way to reinforce your learning, but they were useless here.
By Rory M
•Apr 7, 2020
Awful. Quizzes are broken down unnecessarily and barely any opportunity to critically engage. Not worth it
By IRENE L P
•Mar 26, 2023
Not really objective, I have the feeling that the content is so biased...