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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

When i read the title of this course, i could not imagine what it is about. So i took it. It's a great course, with different perspectives and with a really clear language. Thank you!

quizzes were thoughtful

peer work not so much

audio was poor

content without context of era

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

Helpful and insightful. I try to learn as much about witchcraft and all religions as I can. The first set of videos were well lit and well read. I recommend this for anyone who wants to learn more.

This course was really thorough and interesting. I liked how it covered a range of religions and regions and I think it's great how there are interactive assignments which judge out writing.

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!

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.

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.

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.

This course provided interesting information in the video clips. However, there was limited discussion in the forums when I studied on this course. It would also have been nice to see more involvement in the forums by the course organisers. As it was, the students seem to have been left very much on their own with only a handful of moderators doing their best to help as they could.

The actual course videos don't give you much concise information, but a lot of ideas and is aimed at a very historic way of studying, which probably won't fit the needs and expectations of someone who is learning about this topic for fun and entertainment, because this approach makes the course incredibly boring. The tests are hard because they target very precise and disposable details pulled out of the myriad of information that was put forward in the videos. The essay assignment was quite pointless and it was very hard to write about the details, pull out the necessary information and to reach the goals the teachers have set. I recommended this course to a friend at before I took it, I hope he didn't start this course because he would just be wasting his time.