Chevron Left
Back to Modern Art & Ideas

Learner Reviews & Feedback for Modern Art & Ideas by The Museum of Modern Art

4.8
stars
6,488 ratings

About the Course

Modern Art & Ideas is designed for anyone interested in learning more about modern and contemporary art. You will look at art through a variety of themes, including Places and Spaces, Art and Identity, Transforming Everyday Objects, and Art and Society. Each week kicks off with a video that connects key works of art to the theme. You’ll also have access to interviews with artists, designers, and others who speak about their materials, processes, and sources of inspiration. Through the discussion forum prompts you will also have the opportunity to connect with other learners and explore how these themes resonate with you....

Top reviews

AM

Jan 14, 2018

It has been a very wonderful course. I love the museum as a cultural space and now I love it more for its commitment to online education and giving us the opportunity to learn in different countries.

TT

Jun 7, 2020

Really enjoyed this course! Well organized/developed, and even for a museum buff, like me, offered great ideas, and perspectives in ‘looking’ and ‘understanding’ art, and particular artist’s process.

Filter by:

1 - 25 of 1,623 Reviews for Modern Art & Ideas

By Simon C

Jul 24, 2016

I have taken many courses on Coursera now, and I've enjoyed and learned a lot from most of them, but I have to admit I was disappointed with this one, despite having a deep interest in modern art and art theory. Here are some of my criticisms:

1. The course is aimed at teachers and art educators, which was not made at all clear on the course info page, apart from a single reference to the 'pedagogical framework'. If I'd understood this, I may well not have enrolled.

2. I found the course very basic, with no consideration of art theory beyond a level appropriate for classroom discussion. This is in contrast to many other Coursera courses, which have been pitched at graduate level or above. I don't really feel like I learned anything on this course.

3. The video lectures are very short and uninformative, but the weekly reading list is very long and much more time consuming that the actual tuition. I would have preferred a better balance between tutorials and reading.

4. The weekly quizzes were very short (six questions, where other courses typically have 20 to 30 questions per module), and and questions focus almost entirely on the pedagogical set texts, with very little attention paid to the art history or the works discussed in the tutorials. If you are not going to be tested on the material, what is the point of all that required reading?

5. The final peer-assessed assignment is lacking in instructions or guidance. For example, you are required to upload images of 3 or 4 artworks and discuss them. It is in fact impossible to upload more than a single image, but there are no instructions on what to do about this. People found various workarounds - uploading pdfs or Word documents, or zipped folders of images, but really, there should be some official guidance on this.

6. Comments made when assessing other students' work are not anonymous - this is unique in my Coursera experience, where anonymous marking is the norm, and knowing how fractious people can get when they are disappointed with their grade, I am not at all happy about having my name made available to them.

Overall, the only reason I persisted with this course is that I wanted to get a certificate with MoMA written on it. Too bad I couldn't have actually learned something as well.

By damien p

Mar 12, 2017

What a genuinely refreshing course that really caught me attention. Well done to the team behind this course as I am more interested in modern art after completing this course than ever before.

By Amanda J V

Oct 11, 2016

I really enjoyed this course and the way art was discussed based on theme rather than chronologically. My only issues with the class were the frustrations with the quizzes being graded incorrectly.

By Aracely L M

Jan 14, 2018

It has been a very wonderful course. I love the museum as a cultural space and now I love it more for its commitment to online education and giving us the opportunity to learn in different countries.

By Milagros P

Feb 25, 2019

This course is really amazing, it has opened my eyes to so many new concepts and approaches that I didn't know about. It is also really well structured, and there are lots of complimentary (and reliable) sources to go to for extra learning.

By Park J Y

Nov 1, 2018

The whole program was very well organized, and I liked how the themes were not in chronological order. All the narration and artists’ talk were interesting and highly informative. Thanks!

By Asha S G

Jul 7, 2019

The course has expanded my understanding of art at different levels. There is a lot more to art than capturing beauty. It has increased my scope of expression as it is not restricted to colours and canvas now.

By hamideh b

Mar 27, 2020

this course was the most interesting course that I have ever had. I learned lots of special things about the artist and their artworks and it leads me to find my way in my art career. thank you.

By Alfa D

Feb 23, 2019

Es un curso excelente con fabulosos contenidos. Todos los estudiantes de Arte, de cualquier área, deberíamos de tomar este curso.

By Tulin

Jun 8, 2020

Really enjoyed this course! Well organized/developed, and even for a museum buff, like me, offered great ideas, and perspectives in ‘looking’ and ‘understanding’ art, and particular artist’s process.

By nana d

Apr 4, 2020

it was such a beautiful experience with MOMA

i learned so much new things i never knew before

more knowlodge about the modern art

have seen new works

i like to make more course with MOMA

By Mariela B

Apr 14, 2020

Para todos aquellos que estan buscando un desafio en el rubro del arte y entender mas sobre ciertas cuestiones me parece que es un buen curso para tomar. En mi caso yo quise seguir aprendiendo ingles y esto fue un desafio ya que ademas de estar aprendiendo sobre el rubro en el cual trabajo ademas le sume la barrera idiomatica.

For all those who are looking for a challenge in the field of art and understand more about certain issues, I think it is a good course to take. In my case, I wanted to continue learning English and this was a challenge since, in addition to learning about the area in which I work, I also added the language barrier.

By Farah F S

Dec 21, 2019

This course is like a revelation to me. There is so much thing I did not know about critical thinking especially through art. Very recommended to anyone who ever thought art is a trivial thing.

By Ксения К

Sep 13, 2019

This course was completely great and was so interesting! It was much more than just video lectures and readings, but a full world of art with cool podcasts and YouTube videos!

By Estrella C S

Jun 24, 2017

Es un buen curso, para refrescarse en cuanto a cultura moderna del arte. Igualmente los ejercicios de análisis son muy utiles y productivos. Recomendable

By Jatin P

Jan 31, 2016

I took the course because I'm an Art enthusiast and a hobby artist. Previously I was disgusted at anything called "Modern Art" because it made no meaning to me, maybe I just encountered the wrong or naive pieces of work, or I think the major reason I had no complete idea what Modern Art stood for. I was a staunch follower of depictive fine arts, but this course has changed my views about the subject and now I see this domain with a fresh and a better perspective. This course was actually fun to take and I'm motivated to watch the videos again and again as they have been made to be very interesting and the readings though lengthy were quite good. It was a great course andI hope MoMA gets more courses like this on Coursera. I would love to take more of these.

Thanks MoMA and Coursera

By Gabriela J

May 25, 2020

Un curso muy bonito y que deja más enseñanzas de las que esperaba. Mi intención al tomar este curso fue hacer mi cuarentena menos aburrida, pero encontre un verdadero curso que me exigía completar tareas y trabajos muy buenos, con mucha información muy valiosa y de muy buenas fuentes. Me llevo una muy buena experiencia, nuevos conocimientos que seguramente utilizaré en mi vida diaria y profesional y seguramente muy pronto me inscribiré a otro curso, muchas gracias MoMA por permitir el acceso a bastante información y a Coursera por hacer una plataforma muy fácil de utilizar. Gracias también a los profesores y compañeros que calificaron el desempeño durante este curso, nos vemos pronto!

By Brenda L R O

Oct 3, 2019

Very easy to learn with this system, all the info and themes were so helpful.

By Sigurd T

Apr 11, 2018

This is the worst and most lazily assembled online course I've ever seen. It is simply a slide-show of select pieces of modern art with some rambling commentary that could mean anything. The quizes are unnecessarily tricky, but to top it all off participants have to write two 500 word peer reviewed essays at the end. Peer reviewed. Like a final "we don't care" from the authors. Can't believe I wasted hours on this.

By Nahir M G

Feb 24, 2020

It is one of the best experiences of online learning I´ve ever had. So complete and attractive, bringing together wonderfully written texts and so well made videos.

To see the work and opinions of other students and the possibility of expressing opinions about people´s works and visions, made the course even more complete.

My enthusiasm grew with every chapter and my love for art and the wish of knowing more about it, as well as my decision of working in and for art, increased too.

Thank you for this wonderful experience!

Nahir Márquez

By Julia S

Sep 30, 2019

This course gave me great inspiration for my new paintings and designs! Thank you MoMA and Coursera!

By Franco G A

Jun 11, 2019

I loved all the descriptions and information

By Valentina C

Feb 10, 2020

I loved the course. Thank you very much for this activity, I enjoyed it very much.

I have a comment about the platform and the videos and the assignments, about the first ones, as in week 4 the text was not loaded, so I could not save my notes and in the assignments, they are a bit confused and the platform does not help. The activity where I was supposed to upload 5 to 10 images, did not load the text so I did everything within one image (text, works, links, title, what kind I was referring to...) The fact is that my evaluation was not good because the evaluators did not see or read my text within the image.

________

Me encantó el curso. Muchas gracias por esta actividad, la disfruté mucho.

Tengo un comentario con respecto a la plataforma y los videos y las tareas, respecto a los primeros, como a las semana 4 no cargó el texto, con lo cual no pude guardar mis notas y en las asignaciones, están algo confusas y la plataforma no ayuda. La actividad en donde se suponía que debía subir de 5 a 10 imágenes, no me cargaba el texto por lo que todo lo hice dentro de una misma imagen (texto, obras, enlaces, título, a qué clase me refería...) El hecho es que mi evaluación no fue buena porque los evaluadores no vieron o no leyeron mi texto dentro de la imagen.

By Farah S

Feb 7, 2017

This has been an amazing course for me. It really enriched my understanding about modern art, and it introduced me to so many pieces of work and artists that I did not previously know about. I absolutely loved the videos and visuals, and the input of people who actually work MoMA. It also made me see abstract and surreal art in a different light. While previously I would have shrugged off abstract and surreal art as being too esoteric for its own good, I was able to understand the concept of surrealism a lot better through this course. I also really appreciated the reading materials for this course, and how precise yet detailed they were. Doing this course has helped me have a multifaceted view of different kinds of art, and I am incredibly grateful for having had this opportunity.

By Anita B

May 22, 2018

I absolutely loved this course. It was very well structured and at the right pace. I loved how it pulled in all the strands of different art from painting, to sculpture to installations. I found it both interesting and challenging. The quizzes were great, and you cant wing it - I know cos I tried! The written piece at the end tested me but in a really good way. I was forced to think about what I had learnt and to apply it. This has given me confidence to try another course but has also increased my curiosity for modern art. Highly recommend to anyone and thank you MOMA/Coursera for putting this on.