First of all this course is far from schooling people how to create own opinions. Tests are mostly about opinions...opinions of the teachers that you have to support. I had much higher expectations seeing the high average reviews of the course.

Secondly, the program of the course skips quite many important aspects of the topic of magic in the middle ages. I believe much better choice than this course will be the book 'A history of Magic, witchcraft and the occult' written by British historians.

Oh, and also non-native English teachers try to use fancy words they have issues to pronounce.

Interesting and methodic look at different perceptions and practices of Magic during the Middle Ages. Diverse and challenging presentation of various views of Magic in different cultures, as well as highlighting the role and motivation of the Church in defining supersitition and creating an environment where Magic was perceived mainly in a negative context.

The quality of the information provided by different lecturers was excellent and the reading lists are great sources to deepen understanding of the courses objectives.

I totally recommend Magic in the Middle Ages to anyone interested in all forms of magic and magical practitioners and the changing perspectives towards these Arts during the Middle Ages.

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!

A well-organized class that breaks down different attitudes of 'magic' throughout the Middle Ages- with emphasis on the clergy, as well as a unit specifically dedicated to Islamic Magic (which should be a course in itself as there was much to be covered). Much of what was covered was a reinforcement of what I have previously studied as someone who is interested in magic because of my background as an archaeologist and anthropologist- so this was a nice aspect. In sum, it was enjoyable.

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.

Insightful and entertaining journey into the world of magic in the Middle Ages. It corrected some misconceptions I had and offered new information on changing positions of church and gender as it relates to the material. I especially appreciated the points of view from Judaic, Christian and Islamic faiths.

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!

Excelente curso para iniciarse en la maravillosa historia de ésta forma de conocimiento, los videos son sencillos de entender con una o dos pasadas, tiene un enfoque muy amplio y acertado.

This course is fascinating. That being said, there are some serious problems with the course.

The two peer reviewed assignments are frustrating. For the first assignment the marking rubric doesn't match the instructions for the assignment. This had been undated in the Discussion Forums by one of the instructors, but those instructions still didn't match the marking rubric. For the second assignment all of the links are broken. Once again you have to hunt around in the Discussion Forums to find working links. It is also annoying to have to beg for someone on the Discussion Forums to please review your essay in order to finish the course. This is necessary because the instructors seem to have completely abandoned the course a year after it was created.

The Week 4 videos are a complete horror show of name dropping authors or books. For instance, try retaining Ibn Khaldun, Ikhwan al-Safa, Ibn Masarra, Jabir ibn Hayyan, Ilm al-mizan, mizan al-huruf, Muhyi al-din Ibn al-Arabi, Ahmad al-Buni, Shams al-ma'arif al-kubra, or Khalid ibn Yazid. Good luck with that Week 4 Quiz!

These problems are extremely unfortunate because they detract from an otherwise excellent course that is full of fascinating material. I highly recommend everyone who has any interest in magic in the middle ages to take this course, but be prepared to work around some very annoying design flaws.

Very interesting and I love that all the information is free if you don't want to pay for a professional certificate. There are still a few spelling errors but this is to be expected I suppose.

The content of this course was great and covered all aspects of Magic in the Middle Ages.

The course itself and how it is run needs an overhaul.

1. Assessments are unclear and confusing.

2. Waiting on several other peers to mark assessments is frustrating.

3. A summary at the end of each video/module would be welcome. More than once I thought I had clearly understood the content but was marked incorrect on the quiz.

If these issues were fixed I would be more than happy to study with Coursera again.

Starts off well, but the peer graded assignment in week 3 is not clear on expectations until you enter the stage of reviewing other students' submissions. Then week 4 is an indigestible lump of names and treatise titles that is hard to follow and hazy in purpose. The only video in that week that is very comprehensible is the weekly video. To top it all off, the external link in week 5, which you need in order to complete that peer reviewed assignment, is no longer available (and has been gone for at least a month, according to the forum), and the educators are MIA, & have not responded to the issue. Honestly, I personally dislike the entire peer reviewed assignment as a part of the courses on Coursera. Some students do not take them seriously, and it's also frustrating waiting for someone to review your submission. The submissions are really just a regurgitation of what we've learned, anyway, which is just as easily done with quizzes.

Course material is not covered in depth, assessments poorly designed with materials not present, rubrics not shared ahead of assessment.

Morally I cannot give the course a higher grade, as it asks students to justify the actions of murderers and torturers.

Decepcionante. El tema es interesante, pero el tratamiento es muy superficial.

Difficult to understand th tutor

I loved Magic in the Middle Ages. I would have loved it even more if it had been a bit more focused in actual magical practices (like giving more detail of witches rituals and spells, for example) and since it is a course given by Universitat de Barcelona, a video about magic in the region would've been great too. But overall, this is a super informative course, the teachers were great (Dr. Delfi Nieto didn't need to apologize for her speaking speed, she was my favorite) and I loved how varied the topics were, including magic in different cultures and countries and the history of different practices (the one about astrology is awesome). I 100% recommend taking this course.

¡Es un gran curso! Disfruté mucho aprender en este curso, cada semana estaba lleno de información que te deja con ganas de saber más sobre el tema. Es un curso muy recomendable y espero que haya más cursos de este tema. Los maestros son muy buenos explicando sus temas y te contagian el interés.

****

A great course! I enjoyed a lot learning in this course, each week was full of information that leaves you with the need to know even more of the subject. Is a very recomendable course, and I hope there is more courses of this subject soon. The teachers are great explaining their subjects and they make you very interested about all.

This course is one of the most amazing learning experiences I've had in the past few years. I'd been learning about magic in the Middle Ages before, but here I found so many things I didn't know and now I feel I have a deeper understanding of this complex and fascinating topic. I especially appreciated that the course departs from a Euro-centric perspective to include, for example, an extended module about magic in the Islamic world. The teachers are great and I'm very happy to have had the opportunity to learn from experts in the field.

Thank you for the course, it was interesting and exiting, and it's a pity it ended so quickly. On some topics I would like to get more information, and now I know in what direction to look and which sources to use.

I would also like to see in the text under videos the time, when the illustrations are included in the video. Because my English level is not enough to understand all the lectors speech, I more read text under the video than watch the video itself. And I would like to know at what timestamp I can find the included illustration.

I learnt a lot about the medieval ages and the culture. This course was very interesting and informative. I'm thankful to Coursera for having this course and to University of Barcelona for making this amazing course. It is a great course for those who don't have the opportunity to take this subject in your college. The assignments were also interactive and optional videos are also provided for those who are further interested. I felt as if I witnessed the medieval age. One of the best courses on Coursera. Happy learning!

A great introduction to the study of Magic in the Middle Ages. I enjoyed it and highly recommend. The views of campus where some of the sessions were filmed were pleasant. I learned several new concepts that I will continue to research outside of the class. Some of the information provided in the Islamic portion delved into esoteric differences between religious philosophers that I couldn't quite follow. Thankfully it was not the make or break in the class quizzes.

Good afternoon!

I would like to thank you for your wonderful course!

Now I know at least a little bit about medieval magic, alchemy, and I have an understanding of magic not only in medieval Europe but also in the Middle East. This course will definitely stay in my memory for sure, because now I definitely want to study more.

Special thanks for the last written assignment, it was great, I like doing this kind of analysis.

I wish you new achievements and discoveries!